Vicis Vulnus
by Nataka-s
Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out Harry is determined to fix everything that has gone wrong. He returns to the past to find his experience will set many things off of their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for. HPxHG
1. Jump Through Time

**Disclaimer**: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

**Pairings**: Harry x Hermione

**Summary**: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

**Author's Note as it applies to the whole story**: None of the characters become super powerful or super smart or anything. Harry has more knowledge than he would have because he's from the future, but he isn't going to have the answer to everything, and I do love causing characters problems. The first year sticks closely to the book, but it starts getting more AU after that. Also, this story may have slight Ron or Dumbledore bashing, but I try to keep it realistic/ acceptable. This story has been posted to my personal website as well, which you can check out by viewing my profile.

This is the first fanfiction I've ever actually posted somewhere. I've written some before this- they may be posted later, actually- but this is the first one to see the light of day. There are some lines taken directly from or closely resembling the text, but as fanfiction, I'm sure everybody reading will know what they are.

This is, in case you didn't notice, a time meddling fic. Normally I despise this type of fanfiction, but in Harry Potter it kind of fits after third year, so it doesn't bother me so much. And I won't deny it might not be an entirely original idea - "Harry goes back in time to change stuff"...it's been used a million times- but I did it my way, so it's personal.

Any long passages in italics are altered states of conciousness (ie, dreams, visions, flashbacks, etc). Also, this will be the last time the Author's note is directly at the top, from now on they'll be posted at the end of a chapter. Sorry it was so long, the notes will be shorter from now on. Read and review please!

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Chapter One. Jump Through Time

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The small wizard stepped onto the platform of the Hogwarts Express and looked around cautiously. He had made sure to get there early to avoid the same problem he had encountered the last time, and quickly went off in search of an empty compartment. He saw faces he knew and tried to ignore them, walking forward determinedly. No one looked at the short, raven haired boy as he walked down the platform and he finally stopped when he came to the end of the train. Glancing around Harry pulled out his wand and waved it silently to hover his trunk onto the locomotive, making sure no one would see his silent spell work. While _Wingardium Leviosa_ wasn't a difficult spell to master, it would still look suspicious for an eleven year old to be pulling it off on their first train ride to school.

Harry climbed into the space after it, putting down Hedwig and pulling on his school robes before the train departed. Sitting down, he quickly dragged a book out of his trunk and began reading it in hopes that it would scare off any prospective interference. Shortly after he began leafing through his book- _The Healer's Helpmate_, which he figured he should brush up on- the train began filling with students as more families appeared on the platform. He glanced at his watch impatiently. 10:46. He smiled as he realized there was less than fifteen minutes before he'd be returning to the only home he'd even known. he'd always gotten there late, so the amount of last minute arrivals surprised him slightly. As he was watching outside his window- his book laying momentarily forgotten- he noticed a family of redheads come through the barrier. He quickly glanced away, not wanting anyone to notice him watching them, even if he was at the end of the train and safely hidden out of sight.

There were noises coming from the hall way as the train whistle blew and everybody scrambled to get onto the train. He listened to the various doors closing and the children leaning out the windows to say goodbye to their parents. The train began slowly moving out of the station, Harry watched as a ten year old Ginny ran a short distance after the train crying and laughing at her brother's antics before it sped away, leaving her behind waving. He tried to pick out other faces as they went by and he briefly thought he saw the Grangers further up the platform but they were gone before he could make sure. Hearing the door behind him slide open he turned away from the window to see who'd entered- even if he already knew the answer.

"Anyone sitting there?" the youngest male redhead asked, gesturing to the empty window seat. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head without saying anything and turned back to his book. Ron sat down, glancing around awkwardly, but before he could try to start a conversation the twins opened the door and looked over at their brother.

"Hey Ron. We're going down to the middle of the train- Lee's got a giant tarantula down there." George looked curiously at Harry, but the raven-haired boy stayed immersed in his book. Ron muttered a quiet "Right" and the two brothers bid their farewell and left. Silence descended again on the compartment, and Ron glanced for a moment between Harry and the window.

"Hey, I'm Ron Weasley." Ron said, breaking the ice. "Who're you?"

Harry looked up calmly, still unsure of how he wanted to handle this situation. Besides the amount of times Ron had abandoned him he really had nothing against the redhead. He chose to start off as acquaintances, and hoped he could avoid spreading his 'celebrity status' until they had actually reached Hogwarts. "Harry."

There was a moment of silence between them as they each tried to think of something else to say. If Ron noticed the lack of a surname he chose to ignore it. "So," He tossed out casually. "What's your Quidditch team?"

Harry thought for a moment, of course that would be the topic Ron started. "I don't have one." He said finally. Shrugging, he continued, "I haven't really watched much Quidditch before."

"Oh." Ron said, looking disappointed. Harry decided to take pity on him, waiting for the next intrusion that should have been coming soon.

"You're a fan?"

"Oh, yeah." Ron said, brightening a little. "Chudley Cannons, they haven't been doing to well lately, but hopefully this year-"

He was interrupted by a smiling woman opening their door with a large food cart behind her and asking in a cheery voice, "Would you like anything, dears?"

Harry put his book down and went out into the corridor to view the cart, feeling his stomach grumble slightly. Ron muttered something about sandwiches and looked away. Harry bought some Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, and a drink before going back inside and hearing the cart roll off back down the train. He returned to his seat quietly as Ron took out some sandwiches, and they both began eating while casually returning to their conversation on Quidditch. Harry would have liked to have shared some of his candies but didn't want to start implying any strong friendship between them, so he simply kept the small pile neatly between him and Hedwig. The scenery outside slowly shifted to woods and hills and their conversation ended. Harry had gone back to reading his book and Ron was staring lazily out the window when the next interruption occurred. A round faced boy entered their compartment, and Harry perked up. Neville, while never having been a _close_ friend, was still one of the people whom Harry liked to see. It amazed him how much the boy had changed in the seven years of schooling from his original time line. Hopefully the two of them could at least talk a little more than they had previously.

"Excuse me," The boy started nervously, "have either of you seen a toad? I lost mine."

Both Ron and Harry shook their heads and the boy dropped his eyes to the floor. "I've lost him!" He wailed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll show up." Harry said, smiling kindly. Ron nodded his agreement and the boy thanked them and walked out. As soon as the door was closed Ron shook his head.

"Don't know what he's bothered about. I never would have wanted to bring a toad. Of course, I have Scabbers so I can't really talk." Ron pulled out a sleeping rat from his pocket and Harry tensed immediately. He hadn't forgotten this little fact, but he hadn't been prepared for seeing the traitor so soon. Ron continued on witlessly. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but it didn't work. Look…"

He pulled out his battered wand, but as soon as he raised the wood the door opened again and a girl stepped in with the boy from earlier behind her. She had bushy brown hair and like Harry was already wearing her new robes. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one."

"We already told him we haven't." Ron said, annoyance underlying his voice. Hermione didn't notice, intent on the wand in his hand. "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then."

She sat down to watch, and Ron paused, taken aback. Muttering something under his breath he paused and said a quick rhyme while flicking his wand at the rat. Nothing happened.

"Not a very good spell, is it?" Hermione asked after seeing the effects. Ron's ears went red, but she continued. "I tried some spells at home already and they all worked for me. No one else in my family's magic, it was a huge surprise when I got the letter. I've memorized all of our course books for this year- I hope it'll be enough, and of course I read some books for background reading. I'm so happy to be going away to this school, it's supposed to be one of the best you know. My name's Hermione Granger, by the way. Who're you?"

Ron looked frozen at her words and Harry bit back a laugh, knowing he was probably beginning to panic at not having learned everything. Finally he snapped out of it enough to answer her question. "Ron Weasley."

"Harry." Harry replied also, looking at Hermione closely for the first time since she came into the compartment. Hermione was a friend he wanted to keep and made a mental note to get to know her better this year than he had the first time around. There would be no troll-in-the-bathroom scenario if he could help it. She didn't seem to be sharing his friendly thoughts however, and turned her eyes to him with a small glare.

"It's impolite not to include your surname, you know."

The boy cringed, and he noticed Ron and Neville both look over at him. He should have realized the bushy haired girl wouldn't have been so lenient as to let him get away with it. "Potter." He muttered quietly. "Harry Potter."

"Are you really?" She asked while both of the other boys suddenly became more attentive. "I've read all about you, of course, you're in a lot of books."

"I know." Harry said. He glanced around the compartment before his flicking his eyes over to the window. "That's why I don't like saying it. I'm not really fond of the attention."

"Oh, of course." Hermione said. "Sorry about that." Then, without missing a beat she asked, "Do either of you know what house you're going to be in? I've been asking around, I hope I get put into Gryffindor, it sounds like the best house. Of course, Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we have to go look for Neville's toad. Be seeing you."

Hermione and Neville left, and Ron threw his wand back into his trunk, muttering about the spell. He glanced up at Harry, and after a moment of silence asked, "Are you really Harry Potter?"

Harry sighed and nodded his head.

"And do you have, you know…?" He motioned toward Harry's forehead.

Harry sighed again. His hair was covering the scar he knew, he had purposefully made it that way before going to Platform 9¾ that morning. "Yes, but I don't like people gawking at it so I keep it covered."

"Oh…" Ron stared at him for a moment. Harry waited for the next question he knew was coming, and sure enough, Ron asked with an eleven-year-old tactlessness, "That's where You-Know-Who…?"

"Yes, but I don't like talking about it."

"Oh."

The compartment fell into silence, and Harry picked his book back up from where he'd put it down on the seat. Ron seemed to struggle to find something of interest to say now that he knew who his compartment companion was, and blurted out, "My brother's in Romania working with dragons."

Harry looked up. This was…unexpected. A blush had appeared on Ron's face, but he plowed on now that he had Harry's attention. "Yeah, Charlie, he went there straight after graduating from Hogwarts. He was also the best seeker for the Gryffindor house while he was still in school, he probably could've gone professional if he wanted."

Harry tried to find something to say. Finally he settled with an interested sounding "Really?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, I have another older brother who's graduated, Bill, he's a curse-breaker for Gringotts. Did you hear, someone tried to break in?"

"Yeah…"

The door sliding open interrupted Harry from finishing, and both of the boys turned to look at the newcomers for the fourth time that trip. Three boys stood in the doorway who Harry recognized immediately. He briefly wondered how they knew he was here since the twins hadn't noticed him and he doubted Hermione was running around telling everybody. Neville might've, Harry decided, or they had simply known because a parent told them he would be in their year.

"I heard Harry Potter was here." Malfoy said, looking at Harry with interest. "It's you, is it?"

Harry nodded, keeping his face neutral. The blonde boy extended his hand, "This is Crabbe and Goyle." He said, seeing Harry glance at them. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

"Harry Potter, but you already know that." Harry spoke just as he noticed Ron about to snigger. One thing he had never liked about the redhead was how he tended to drag Harry into family matters so much- like the feud with Malfoy. "I'm sorry, but could I ask where you heard I was here? I was under the impression only two people outside the compartment had noticed." He looked at Malfoy's extended hand, and reached forward cautiously to shake it while maintaining his unreadable expression. He had already decided what he was going to do in _this_ situation. There was no need to make an enemy already, and was there really anything wrong with being polite? Even if Malfoy was still a prat at eleven, Harry knew he would at least get a little more civil later.

Ron was glaring as they shook hands, but Malfoy's eyes had lit up. "My father mentioned you would be here this year." He said carelessly. "Do you know what house you'll be in yet?"

Harry shook his head politely. "No, but I don't think Ravenclaw would be so bad." He almost wanted to laugh at the expressions on the others faces- all of them. Ron's mouth had dropped open in horror and the three soon-to-be Slytherins exchanged shocked glances.

Malfoy was the first to recover, "Ravenclaw wouldn't be the worst, but I think you could do better Potter. Slytherin is the best of the houses, of course."

Ron snorted, which caught the attention of the three intruders. Malfoy sneered. "I suppose you'll be in the house of the brainless and reckless, Weasel? Or maybe you'll end up in Hufflepuff, that's a right fit to."

Harry frowned, but said nothing as he glanced over at Ron's flush. He had no intention of coming to the other boy's aid unless things started to get violent, and even then he was unsure.

"You'll find, Potter," Malfoy continued icily, "that some wizarding families are better than others. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort, I can help you there."

Harry glanced back at Malfoy, cursing the redhead silently in his mind. Ron just had to make things complicated for him already. Suddenly footsteps were heard approaching their door and Harry let out a quiet sigh that they'd been interrupted.

Malfoy looked at Harry a final time, saying "Think about my offer Potter." And walked out with the other two. Just after they'd left Hermione reentered, looking around.

"It wasn't either of you who were running around the corridors, was it?" she sniffed. "There are some people behaving very childishly around here."

"No." Ron said shortly, glaring at her. She looked at them both before turning away and saying, "You should get changed, I was just speaking to the conductor and he said we'd be there soon."

With that she was gone and Harry sighed, picking his book back up from where he'd put it down again. It seemed like he wouldn't get that much reading done. Ron pulled on his cloak angrily, and glanced over at Harry multiple times.

"Slytherins are all Dark Wizards you know." He said at last. "You'd be better going into Gryffindor, it's really the best house."

Harry didn't say anything, he simply put his book back into his trunk and stood up as a voice echoed throughout the train telling them they were reaching their destination and to leave their belongings behind. The students began emptying the train and Ron gave him a few more suspicious glances as they made their way off.

"Firs' years this way! Firs' years follow me!" Harry looked over at the groundskeeper who was waving his massive hand to get the attention of the youngest students. Seeing Harry approaching Hagrid gave him a quick hello before looking around for more first years. "Any more firs' years? Alright, follow me."

He led them down a path where that led to a batch of boats, and Harry heard the other students gasp as the first view of Hogwarts appeared. Hagrid called for everyone to get into a boat, and Harry quickly entered one with Ron following, and Hermione and Neville joined them. He looked around at all of the other boats, more interested in the people than the castle at the moment. He noticed everybody looking at the towering school in front of them except for a pair of eyes that were fixed on him. Quickly recovering from the moments shock he noted that they belonged to Malfoy who spent another moment watching him before he looked away. Harry was suddenly worried as to whether or not his approach on the train had been the best one to take.

The boats pulled into an underground harbor where everyone climbed out onto rocks. Hagrid went around checking the boats, and after finding Trevor, went out to the front lawn to knock on the large doors. They were opened immediately to reveal a woman in emerald colored robes with a stern expression. Hagrid left, and she led them off to wait in a small chamber. After giving them a brief speech about the houses and her expectation in them she left, and everybody began fidgeting nervously.

Harry looked around and began wondering what house he truly wanted to be in. Gryffindor wouldn't be terrible, he had had a lot of fun in it the first time around, but repeating his last life wasn't what he wanted. As for Slytherin…after the hat had first suggested he should be in it he had always wondered, but that was also the first step to alienating everybody else around him. Harry knew that would happen enough as it was, he didn't think he needed to be pushing it. He tried to ignore the idea that Hufflepuff was an option. Throughout his Hogwarts career the only notable event from Hufflepuff was Cedric Diggory getting into the Tournament. Harry didn't feel like he could be pushed enough if he joined that house. Ravenclaw did seem like a good option- but they had a reputation for being smart in theory, he had noticed in his classes that during actual spell casting they were level with every other house on how fast they got spell to work. Harry shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. He had changed, he knew that much. Maybe he would just listen to what the Hat wanted this time around.

Suddenly people behind him screamed. Harry spun around getting read to draw his wand when he realized it was just the ghosts making their appearance. Nobody noticed his actions in the excitement the spirits caused, and everybody was staring at the arguing ghosts in awe. McGonagall came back as they took notice of the students and slowly the spirits left. Once they were gone the professor led the children into the Great Hall.

Everybody's eyes turned to look at the new first years, and Harry heard Hermione make a comment about the enchanted ceiling. Everyone turned their attention to the front of the room as the professor placed an old, frayed hat on a stool. Harry leaned forward to get a look at the artifact and the Sorting Hat opened its mouth-like rim and began singing. Everybody applauded as it finished, and McGonagall began calling forward names. Nothing changed from what Harry remembered. Hermione was sorted reasonably quickly, and Neville's turn took a bit longer than some other students, but they were both put into Gryffindor. Malfoy went straight into Slytherin, as before. Harry started feeling nervous as he watched the rest of the list go. Any minute he'd be called forward and he hadn't decided on a house. He knew if he had a preference the hat would let him have it, but he was torn on what he should decide. Finally the choice was taken out of his hands as "Potter, Harry" was called.

The entire hall started buzzing with whispers as people began edging around to view him. Before the hat fell over his eyes he cast his sight in at three people: Ron- whom he didn't really care for the opinion of but was still curious, Hermione- a friend who he'd hate to lose, and Malfoy- for a reason unknown even to him. All he could guess was that he wanted a better chance of winning Slytherin support this time around. As the fabric fell over his eyes he vision was blocked by blackness. It seemed like he waited longer than the last time for the hat to speak.

"Isn't this…interesting…" The voice said inside of his ear slowly. "Not your first time being sorted I see. How peculiar. Apparently we've done this before, not that I remember. It was Gryffindor last time I see, against my better judgment. Any preference this time around?"

Harry thought for a moment._ No._ he said finally. _I can't seem to find out what would be best, although I've given Ravenclaw a lot of thought._

"I'm not quite sure if you're Ravenclaw material." The voice said quietly.

Harry stiffened slightly, and for some reason felt insulted. _What? But I'm smarter than everyone else in my year already! Smarter than any of the students here at all probably!_

"How intelligent you are isn't what matters in Ravenclaw. Anyone can learn, it's how much you thirst for knowledge that counts."

_I've thirsted for plenty of knowledge._ Harry thought back, trying to be polite but noticing a bit of a sulky tone entering his thoughts anyway. The Sorting Hat seemed more amused than annoyed and thought back to him quietly.

"Yes, but only when you've needed to know something. You've never learned for the sake of learning, only out of self-preservation. Very Slytherin like."

Harry frowned. He wasn't sure if he quite liked that. A thought occurred to him. _You know the bit of Riddle's soul that's in me isn't mine, right? You're not including that in your judgment, are you?_

There was a small pause. "Hmm. Honestly Mr. Potter, I didn't notice that. My, my. What to do with you. Even taking away Salazar's influence, you still have many Slytherin qualities. Very brave as well, and not afraid to do the right thing. But you're not blind to reason, not anymore…"

_Are you going to tell Dumbledore about this?_

"Hm? No, no. Student confidentiality. He doesn't need to know you've deiced to jump through time, however you managed to do it. Oh, a portal, I see." Harry smirked as the hat sought his own answer. "But alas, I need to sort you now."

_Ravenclaw?_

"Mr. Potter, the only reason you want that house now is because I refused to give it to you. So no."

_You let me choose the first time._

"Your reasons were reasonable the first time."

Harry and the Sorting Hat both fell silent. Harry desperately tried to refrain from arguing further, knowing the hat was right. The hat on the other hand, still seemed to be taking it all in good humor. "I believe I know what to do with you. Slytherin would help you to greatness, but that's not exactly what you want, now is it? For your own sake, it had better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry sighed and pulled the hat off his head. Gryffindor again. He almost felt a little disappointed, but he quickly brushed the feeling aside as he went to sit over at his table, ignoring the loud cheering he was receiving. Amidst the cheers and Percy shaking his hand he heard a few whispers that hadn't existed the first time around, with a few of the students wondering why it had taken so long. He realized that he had been on the stool for longer than before and felt a small pink tinge appear on his cheeks and sat down, watching the rest of the sorting. It didn't take very long for everyone to be seated- Ron taking the empty seat next to him to his frustration- and Dumbledore stood from his spot to address the students. After his few words ("Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!") which Harry still didn't understand, the feast appeared. He remained out of the conversations, choosing to eat and listen to the familiar chatter of the other students. Once he glanced up to the Slytherin table, but none of them were looking past their own tablemates. Finally the feast ended and Dumbledore stood to make his final speech, warning them against the third floor corridor and forbidden forest as well as mentioning Quidditch practices.

The school song was sung and everybody left heading to their common rooms, the first year Gryffindors following behind Percy. They went along the familiar path of hidden door and staircases with only one interruption of Peeves before reaching Gryffindor Tower. The boys all climbed into their beds after quickly getting changed. None of them spoke, and Harry felt a wave of wariness wash over him after the first day there. So far he felt he'd handled everything right and nobody was the least bit suspicious. Except the hat. But he had gotten his word that the Sorting Hat wouldn't be telling anybody about that, so Harry brushed it off into the back of his mind and let himself drift to sleep, quickly squashing the urge to throw Scabbers out the dormitory window.

_"You have to be careful with that Harry, it won't work if you're reckless and mess it up."_

_"Merlin Hermione, you'd think I was doing this blindfolded. Look, it's fine, see?"_

_The bushy haired girl studied his potion carefully, looking for anything that would be wrong with it. It was no secret that Harry's worst subject was potions, and she wasn't about to let their project fall apart because of his lack of skill. Grudgingly accepting that there was nothing wrong with the mixture Hermione stepped back. Harry grinned and walked over to stand beside her. _

_"How much longer, you think?" He asked, motioning toward a cauldron on the other side of the room that was brewing quietly. It had been there for the last two months, and he was getting impatient and excited as he thought of what was coming. _

_The brunette bit her lower lip in concentration. "Well, we still need to brew it for another month- don't complain, it's a very complex potion- and then there are two more we have to make to match up with it's ending time. Then there's another three months for the scroll to sit…And then we have to wait for the blue moon, which will be a month after that."_

_"Five more months. Seven overall."_

_"Yes." The girl agreed. "You do realize how lucky we were to have a blue moon so soon, right? We could have been waiting a lot longer to get this done."_

_Harry nodded in understanding. They both looked at the cauldron in silence for a long minute engrossed in their own thoughts. The door behind them opened suddenly, making both Harry and Hermione jump. The two turned and looked at the twenty year old witch who entered, a year younger than Harry, two behind Hermione. _

_"Luna." Hermione said, letting out a long breath. The blond girl looked up with her large silvery eyes and smiled dreamily. _

_"Hello Hermione, Harry." She said, going over and putting a bag down next to the bubbling pot. "No Wrackspurts today?"_

_"No…" Harry said as Hermione went to look into the ingredients the girl had brought over. "How was Diagon Alley? Did you run into any of the Order?"_

_The blond shook her head. Harry sighed as he ran his hand through his messy hair. After breaking her free of Death Eaters at Malfoy's Manson she had gone to live with the two of them in their headquarters. Her father had left the country with their help for his own protection, but the ex-Ravenclaw refused to go with him. Instead she joined the two of them, running the errands they couldn't and helping them follow through with their plans. Luckily the Order of the Phoenix had taken back control of the wizarding shopping center, and she could go there without being bothered. None of the Order knew of her involvement with the two sorcerers standing beside her. Occasionally she had been pulled aside by the Order anyways for recruitment, but she always turned them down as she preferred to be doing what she was. _

_"Listen, Luna." Harry began. Hermione looked over her shoulder at the two of them, raising her eyebrows in a 'are you going to try it __**again**__?' manner. He ignored her. In turn, Luna ignored him. _

_"Hermione, how much loner with this all take?" she asked curiously, looking around the room dreamily as though she couldn't care less. She didn't even acknowledge that Harry had spoken to her, already knowing what he had to say on the matter. She was the only one who would tune out the wizarding 'Golden Boy', and it amused and irritated him all at the same time. _

_The older girl bit back a smile at her 'family' and replied, "Five more months."_

_"You know I don't want you doing this." Harry continued. Neither of the girls made any motion to answer him. He sighed, closing his eyes and brushing his hand through his hair more forcefully. He was about to open his mouth again to press the issue when he opened his eyes and found himself all alone, standing in a ring of darkness. "Wha-"_

_He saw a flash of green light and dove to the side, avoiding it. He heard a high, cold laugh and swerved around to view where the voice was coming from. A shadow appeared just outside of his range of sight, and Harry cursed. Quickly calming down, he closed his eyes and concentrated on waking up._

Harry snapped his eyes open, feeling a layer of sweat covering his forehead. Punching his pillow noiselessly in annoyance he glanced at his watch and let out a soft sigh. It was only around one in the morning, and he doubted he'd be able to get back to sleep. Glancing around at the other four poster beds he saw that all the curtains were closed and the other dorm mates sleeping. He slipped over to his trunk and pulled out his clothes for the next day and got dressed quickly. He then removed his school bag and a pouch that he threw around his neck before getting up and walking out of the dormitory silently. When he reached the common room he began walking over to his favorite chair next to the fire which had extinguished itself and pulled his school bag toward him. He figured he could start reading up on some of the first year lessons so he wouldn't be unprepared for how much he supposed to know. He muttered a _Lumos _spell and waved his wand a bit so the light at the tip broke free of the wood and hung in the air beside him so he could put his hand back into his holster.

After a short while he got bored of reading the course books and had switched over to a book he had brought back with him- _The Art of Illusions: Hidden Arts that Wizards have Forgot_- when he heard a noise coming from the girls dormitory. Jerking his head up he waved his hand and the light beside him went out. The noise paused before continuing, and in a moment the outline of a short female appeared at the foot of the girls staircase.

"Hello? Is somebody already down here?" the voice asked uncertainly. Hermione. What was she doing up?

"Oh, hey." Harry replied, and pulled out his wand to cast the _Lumos_ spell again, making it bright enough to see her. Hermione was holding a book of her own and was blinking rapidly at the sudden light. Harry lowered his wand and muttered a quick "sorry."

Regaining her composure the bushy haired girl walked over to him. "What on earth are you doing up? It's two thirty in the morning!" She exclaimed.

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Couldn't sleep, what about you?"

"Couldn't sleep." Hermione repeated. She sat down on a chair opposing him and looked at the light on his wand. "What spell is that? _Lumos_?" At Harry's nod her face brightened. "I've tried that spell already, back at my house. It wasn't as bright though. How did you make it shine more? Did you just put more effort into it? I read somewhere that the intent of magic helps shape how a spell turns out. Fascinating, isn't it?"

Harry grinned, he'd forgotten how much Hermione had learned before even stepping foot into Hogwarts. Hermione was looking down at the battered book in his hand, obviously not expecting him to answer. She frowned, and said "That's not one of our course books. Is it yours?"

"Yeah." Harry said, lifting it up so she could see it better. "Just something I'm curious about."

"You were reading another book on the train. _The Healer's Helpmate_, wasn't it? Do you like reading?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah." he repeated, "I tried getting the hat to put me in Ravenclaw, but it thought Gryffindor was better."

"Really?" Hermione asked. For some reason she looked extremely happy. "It considered putting me into Ravenclaw, but decided for Gryffindor to." She beamed at him. "Have you learned any of the course work yet? It's so exciting, isn't it? I'm really looking forward to starting classes."

"I've learned some of it." Harry answered, trying to sound modest. He decided to try and become friends with her now- it was already the perfect opportunity, and he had to briefly wonder if she had come down into the common room the first year as well. "You said on the train you were Muggle-born. What are your parents like?"

"They're both dentists." Hermione replied happily, never having had someone to really talk to and take an interest in her before. They continued speaking, and at some point Harry noticed the fire had been re-lit and he was able to wave his spell off and put his wand away. It was only an hour or so later that Hermione began yawning and they both made their way back to their separate dormitories with tired 'goodnight's.

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Leave a review please? This is my first story, I'd love some feedback. Thanks. ^^


	2. Broomsticks and HouseElves

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

Rating: T  
Pairings: Harry x Hermione  
Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

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Chapter Two. Broomsticks and House-Elves

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Early the next morning- or that morning, more accurately- Harry got back up and went down to wait for his new/old friend. He wasn't sure how late she would be sleeping in, taking into account their late night and her excitement for that day. The Hermione he knew always woke before he did, and he wanted to make sure he didn't miss her. Students came down and left for breakfast, not many other students actually sat down to wait like Harry did. He opened a book to keep himself occupied and other students away from him. Almost every Gryffindor that came down the staircases cast a glance in his direction before going out, and Harry determinedly ignored them all.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the two of the girls from his year come down, and looked up as they were about to pass his chair. "Hey, erm, Lavender." He said, catching both the girls attention and they began flushing at being addressed by the famous wizard.

"Yes?" she asked over her giggles. Harry resisted rolling his eyes.

"Do you know if Hermione's up yet?"

Both of the girls exchanged glances before Lavender replied. "She's up, she's still in the dormitory though."

"Thanks." Harry said, and the two witches departed in a fit of giggles. He never understood those two and doubted he would this time around either. After waiting for a few more minutes the bushy haired witch came down the staircase carrying her bag and books. She glanced around the common room quickly, Harry wasn't sure if she was expecting him or just looking around, but her eyes lit up when she saw him reading on one of the chairs. She cautiously walked over and Harry looked up at her, breaking out into a grin when she got close.

"Are you going down to breakfast?" Hermione asked, looking at his book.

"Yeah, I was waiting for you." As soon as he said it Harry noticed Hermione's cheeks glow with a soft blush. She beamed at him and they got up, walking out of the tower and making their way down to the Great Hall. Despite not being the first of the new students to leave the tower they were the first ones there, and Harry bit back a laugh thinking that some of the others must've gotten confused on their way down. He remembered it took him a full week to get the directions from Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall right during his first lifetime. They started talking about their courses as the rest of the hall filled with students eating breakfast, and eventually other first years joined them. Neville saw Hermione and came up cautiously to sit across from her, but gave Harry a few apprehensive glances. Knowing the boy's inferiority complex he gave him a smile that was mirrored by Hermione and the round faced boy sat down with them.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Ron enter the Great Hall and avoided making eye contact when he saw the redhead look over. He sighed quietly when he saw him sit down with Seamus and Dean. After the owls came flocking into the hall- something that surprised most of the Muggle-born students to Harry's great amusement- McGonagall went around the table and passed out their schedules.

"Oh, look." Hermione said once she got her time table. "We have History of Magic first, then Herbology, lunch, and Charms."

Harry looked at his schedule, she was right of course. He sighed. "History of Magic in the morning? I think I'd do better in that if it was right after lunch."

Neville glanced nervously along the schedule as well. "W-well, Herbology doesn't sound bad." He said with a small quiver in his voice.

"Oh, the both of you." Hermione sniffed. "You'd be fine if you looked at your books."

Neville seemed to flush a little, but Harry just propped his chin up on his hand. "I _did_ look through my books. Besides, I doubt any of the first few classes will be that hard, they don't want to kill us when we get here. But I heard someone mention that History of Magic was pretty boring."

"How could magic's history be boring?" Hermione asked aghast.

Harry shrugged. Neville was the one to volunteer the answer. "It's the way the class is taught I think. One of the older students said it was taught by a g-ghost, and that all he did was lecture the students."

"It still doesn't sound that bad." Hermione said stubbornly. "I'm sure it'll be fascinating."

"I think I'm looking forward to Herbology today too." Harry said, glancing at Neville, who smiled at him gratefully. Looking at the clock they quickly finished their breakfast and went off in search of their classroom. With Harry's help they got there without any problems and were the first ones to enter the empty room. Assuring Hermione that they were in fact in the right room, they choose desks near the front of the class and waited as more students began straggling in.

The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion, the three of them arriving to every class first and probably the only students not to have gotten lost on their first day. By the time lunch came Hermione and Harry were the only two first years who hadn't been overwhelmed by everything and Hermione chatted endlessly about the classes that they'd had so far. Harry, for his part, was beginning to feel the childish excitement he had the first time he had gone to Hogwarts, and echoed her enthusiasm. Neville sat with the other boys from their year during lunch, leaving the two of them alone. They left for their next class together, waving to Neville as they departed.

The rest of the class followed in a similar fashion to that day. Neville would hang interchangeably with them and the other first year boys, something that Harry didn't mind all that much. Hermione seemed to notice, but she didn't say anything about it either. During their first Transfiguration class, both Hermione and Harry proved themselves to be the best of their year's students, being the only ones to change their matches into needles. Harry had made his slightly worse than hers had been, to allow her the feeling of being the best in class. When Friday finally came he waited in the common room for Hermione, as had become their custom. They walked down to breakfast without much conversation, and Harry waited expectedly for Hedwig to come with Hagrid's letter. Once he'd started eating breakfast the morning mail came and he received the invitation to lunch, which he showed to Hermione and invited her along. She nodded happily, and immediately began asking about Hagrid not knowing much about him herself.

They continued the conversation all the way down to the dungeons for their first Potions class and Harry dragged Hermione to sit in the back, much to her chagrin. He was vainly hoping that by staying out of Snape's line of vision he could avoid being called on. He knew it was pointless, but felt he had to try something.

Snape entered the classroom with his cloaks billowing out behind him, and closed the dungeon door with a quiet snap. The entire class fell silent and looked at the professor with a type of cautious awe. He started the class with a roll call, and paused at Harry's name, making a snide comment before moving on. Any hopes of not being the target of his insults flew out the window as Harry heard his name called, although he did notice the lack of laughter from a certain blond Slytherin. It looked like his actions on the train were paying off, sort of.

Snape looked around the classroom, glaring at the students in turn. "You are here to learn the subtle science of potion-making." He began in a quiet voice, immediately demanding everybody's attention. Despite how Harry felt about the man, he had to admit the potions master was great at intimidation- a skill he himself hadn't learned the value of until late into the war. "As there is little foolish wand waving here, some of you may not believe this is magic at all. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Harry saw Hermione lean forward on her seat excitedly, wanting to prove herself already. Snape swerved his head toward Harry suddenly and asked, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry felt Hermione's hand fly into the air beside him and thought for a moment. He had checked back on these questions, getting ready for this encounter. He answered calmly, trying to seem as modest as possible. "They would make a sleeping potion…Draught of Living Death, sir."

Snape stared at him for a long moment. Hermione had beamed at Harry for getting the right answer and he tried to remain looking as innocent and non-arrogant as possible. Harry was surprised at what happened next- the professor looked away and snapped at another student, "Longbottom! Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Neville's fact turned a bright shade of red and he glanced back at Hermione and Harry sitting behind him nervously, as though he'd be able to see the answer written on them. Hermione's hand was in the air again. "Err…" Neville squeaked nervously. "I-I don't know sir."

A group of Slytherins sniggered and he turned a deeper shade of crimson. Snape sneered at him before turning to a member of his own house. "Mister Malfoy, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"They're the same plant, professor." Malfoy answered casually, sending a smirk over to the opposing house members.

Snape nodded. "Good. Five points to Slytherin for the correct answer."

The Gryffindors opened their mouths in outrage, but Harry just shook his head. He was figuring Snape would show him some amount of dislike- this was better than being humiliated.

"As for Mister Longbottom, the correct answer is that a bezoar is found in the stomach of a goat and is an antidote to most poisons." Snape sneered. Then he glared at the class. "Well? Write this all down!"

Afterward they were put into pairs to make a simple potion, and again Harry watched as the blonde Slytherin was dotted on- or as much as Snape could dot on someone- by the professor. He was commenting on his potion when a loud hissing issued from the Gryffindor's side of the room, revealing that Neville had somehow managed to melt his cauldron and send potion spilling all across the floor. Seeing the boils that were beginning to appear on his friend's skin Harry quickly pulled out his wand and cast _Scourgify_ to remove the potion from him. The liquid was still flowing over the floor, and Snape rushed over to see the commotion.

"Idiot boy!" he hissed. Neville was holding his arms were boils had already begun appearing. Snape swept his wand and cleaned up the potion from the floor. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" without waiting for an answer he turned and snapped at Seamus, "Take him to the hospital wing."

As Seamus helped Neville out of the room he turned and glared at Ron and Dean, who had been sitting next to Neville. "Weasley! Thomas! Why didn't either of you stop him from adding the quills? Thought you could look good if he failed? Ten points from Gryffindor."

The Slytherins looked completely joyous at seeing so many of the other house's students being punished, and Harry quietly begged whatever might've been listening not for Snape to turn on him. Unfortunately, the potions master glared toward the raven haired boy next. "Potter. You used a spell to clean the potion off of Longbottom, tell me, why didn't you use it on the floor as well?"

Harry's mouth dropped open. What?! He was going to get punished for helping a student over cleaning up a mess. Brilliant. "I don't know sir, I was worried about Neville, not the floor." He answered as soon as he could without sounding defiant.

"A point from Gryffindor for lack of common sense." Snape snapped. "Everybody get back to your potions."

As Snape walked away Hermione comforted Harry quietly. "Don't worry, I'm sure plenty of first years wouldn't have thought about cleaning the floor when a friend was in trouble. What was that spell you used, anyway? A cleaning spell, right?"

Harry nodded glumly and described the spell to her. It would figure that Hermione would still defend a teacher's actions than thinking they were simply unfair. He wondered how long it would take to break Hermione of that habit in this lifetime as they continued with their potions. Finally they were released and the two of them made their way up to the Great Hall for lunch. After doing some homework in the library- a place that Hermione had quickly discovered and claimed as their hangout spot- they left the castle to see Hagrid.

Knocking on the door they heard loud barking, and Harry smiled as he saw Hagrid open the door while holding back Fang. Hermione seemed a little nervous at the overanxious boarhound, but as soon as they were inside it began licking them and being generally friendly.

"Hello Hagrid," Harry started cheerfully. "This is Hermione Granger."

"Another first year, eh?" Hagrid asked, glancing at her from where he was putting the kettle on to boil. "Nice to meet yeh. Make yerselves at home."

They sat and talked about their lessons, enjoying- or pretending to- the food and tea that Hagrid provided. Finally Harry noticed the _Daily Profit_ clip out and picked it up in feigned curiosity. "Hagrid, this was the same day we went to Gringotts. That's kind of odd, isn't it?"

"Eh?" Hagrid said, not meeting Harry's eye. "Yea, yea. S'pose it is. So Hermione, what're yer parents like? Muggles righ'?"

Harry looked down at the paper clipping while keeping a detached interest on the conversation. So far everything was checking out like he knew it would- but he had to make sure the timeline hadn't been altered by anything he'd done up to that point. He wasn't going to risk everything on a Butterfly Effect.

_"HERMIONE!" Harry screamed, watching the curse he would relive the sight of for the rest of his life. _

_She turned, trying to dodged the green light, but moved to slowly. The Killing Curse hit her straight in the ribcage, sending her falling backward as the life left her eyes. So easy. With a single spell, the entirety of a person could be ended, making their dreams, accomplishments, feelings, all mean nothing. It wasn't Harry's first time seeing someone he knew die- he'd seen it all too often during the war. Half of him blamed Dumbledore- the man had been wrong when he thought love was the great power that the 'Dark Lord knew not'. Another part of him blamed himself. He wasn't strong enough, smart enough. He couldn't do what Voldemort could, and people died because of it. The only thing he was good at was surviving- and what was the point of that when everyone else he knew died?_

_"Hermione!" He called again, seeing her body crumple to the ground. There was no way- they were best friends, ever since Ron left during their hunt for the Horcruxes- she couldn't die. She just couldn't. "Hermione!"_

_"Harry!" Luna called, running over to him through the rising dust. The town was under attack and the destroyed buildings and flying spells made the air clouded and hard to see in. Harry tried to take off over to his best friends body, but a fallen building was in his way. _

_"Harry!" Luna called again. "We need to get out of here!" Her normally dreamy composure was gone, replaced by a wartime look of determination and dread. "There are too many of them." _

_"Hermione." Harry repeated hollowly, not hearing the girl who had come over beside him. Finally realizing what the man was saying she looked over in the direction he was staring and saw an unmoving body laying on the ground. _

_"Oh, Hermione…" She gasped. Before she had time to react further, another blond appeared beside them. _

_"Potter, we have to go, there are too many Death Eaters and the Order is retreating. We can't stay here alone." Harry felt a hard line appear in his jaw and he nodded, desperately trying to hold back his emotions. She wasn't the first person he'd seen die. He had learned that losing control during a battle could lead to more than just one death, and he couldn't let anyone else die. Not on the same day she had. _

_"What? What is it?" the blond male asked, seeing his comrades expressions. Luna nodded over to the body, wiping tears away from here eyes with her hand not holding her wand. The male looked over. "Oh."_

_"I need to get her." Harry said quietly, and broke out into a run before either of them could stop him. He heard the man behind him shout, before two sets of running footsteps followed him. Curses were sent his way, and he heard one of the Death Eaters call his name which drew even more attention to him. Uncaring he dove to the ground, avoiding curses and sliding over to grab Hermione's body. He felt another body land beside him and swerved to stare at the male who had thrown himself beside him. _

_"Let's go Potter, you arse." The man said. Luna, seeing the two men ready to leave quickly disapparated away with a loud crack. Harry watched her go, and knowing that she was safe, nodded. They both grabbed onto Hermione's body, and concentrated on where they wanted to go. _

_Before disappearing, Harry said quietly, "Thank you, Draco."_

_The ex-Death Eater rolled his eyes and ignored him. _

The two children bid their farewells to Hagrid and made their way back up to the castle for diner. Since neither had really eaten any of the rock cakes they were both hungry. Hermione had brought him out of his contemplation at Hagrid's when she was getting his opinion on Snape's class. He had quickly covered up his drifting thoughts and they had left shortly after.

For the rest of the weekend Hermione had set time aside to complete their homework, something which Neville joined them in, needing help in almost every subject. The two best year students were able to help him out enough without actually giving him the answers, something he was extremely grateful for. Harry was thankful that Ron hadn't tried to make any contact with him save exchanging brief comments in class like he did with the rest of the students.

It wasn't until a few days later when they noticed a posting in the Gryffindor common room declaring flying lessons that anything of interest happened. Both Hermione and Neville seemed extremely nervous about the upcoming event, and Hermione went through a lot of trouble to find any books she could about flying before they would have to learn. Harry's laidback and cheerful attitude about it made Hermione very snappy whenever the subject came up, and Harry tried not to grin too much whenever she got into one of her moods. He remembered how he would've thought it was annoying if he didn't know her as well as he did. The morning they were suppose to have their lessons Hermione was ranting off everything she had read about brooms, Neville clinging to every word she said while a number of the other students rolled their eyes and tried to avoid listening.

The morning post came and an owl landed in front of Neville carrying a package. Harry remembered immediately what it was and glanced around for the approaching Slytherin. Neville opened the parcel, revealing the smoke filled orb and showing it to the others at the table. "It's a Remembrall! It tells you if you've forgotten something…you hold it like this and if it turns red…oh…" The smoke glowed scarlet, making the boy's face fall. "…you've forgotten something…."

Neville frowned as he tried to remember what he'd forgotten, and a hand suddenly snatched the ball out of his grasp. Harry looked up calmly to see Malfoy standing there, inspecting the ball with interest. As expected, Ron jumped up and a few of the other Gryffindors made sounds of protest. McGonagall strode toward them as she noticed the trouble brewing. "What's going on here?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor"

Malfoy scowled and dropped the ball back onto the table. "Just looking." He said as he left, with Crabbe and Goyle following.

The group watched him walk off. Harry seemed to be the only one who wasn't showing annoyance toward the blond. Ron spat out insults, showing his displeasure for the boy. "That prat thinks he can do anything. He's always going on about how he's so much better, bet he's all talk."

The other Gryffindor boys agreed, Neville staying nervously out of it as he put the orb away into his pocket. Hermione just rolled her eyes at the others and opened _Quidditch Through the Ages_ to get some last minute studying done. At three fifteen Harry dragged Hermione down to the pitch before the rest of the Gryffindors, hoping to be able to pick out the best brooms. She went along, trying desperately to cram as much knowledge as she could into her head as Harry was literally pulling her from the common room.

Once they were down onto the field they noticed a number of the Slytherins already gathered and standing beside broomsticks. Seeing the two Gryffindors coming down before the rest of their house a few of the other students sneered. Harry ignored them as he quickly inspected the broomsticks that were left to find the best ones. He hadn't bothered looking at any of them during his first flying lesson, being lucky enough to get one of the better brooms. What he really wanted was a good pick for Hermione and Neville since he knew they would need all the advantage they could get. Finally he picked two that looked reasonable, and stood Hermione beside him, leaving a space open to his other side. The Slytherins had been watching with a detached interest.

"Think you've got the best brooms now, Potter?" Malfoy asked with a slight sneer.

Harry smirked over at him and shrugged. If anything this action created more interest than watching him look at twigs because more of the Slytherins looked over. Unfortunately it was about then that the rest of the Gryffindors began making their way down to the pitch so any prospective conversation was halted. Neville looked at the two nervously and walked over to Harry's other side. Ron also looked at them suspiciously before glancing at the Slytherins, and chose a broom furthest away from them. Madame Hooch arrived and ordered everybody to stand by a broomstick before telling them to call their brooms up.

"Up!" Everybody shouted at once. Harry didn't bother shouting, he simply twitched his wrist and it went up to him. He noticed tremors in the voices of both students beside him as neither of their brooms responded, although they weren't the only ones to have a lack of response. In fact, very few of the brooms actually did as they were told. Everyone else had to quickly bend down to pick up their brooms. Madame Hooch quickly told them how to mount and hold the handles properly. Harry watched as she corrected the grips of most students. He was even more annoyed when she fixed his. Fact was, once a person got used to flying having the correct grip wasn't as important as knowing how to handle the broom, and Harry had ditched the 'correct' way for a more comfortable grip that allowed him to make quick maneuvers better. Changing back now was extremely irritating, although he did it as best he could so he wouldn't start trouble.

"Alright, now everybody get ready to kick off the ground, hard. Rise a few feet and come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle- three- two-"

Harry caught Neville's eye and smiled reassuringly.

"one-"

The whistle was blown, and everybody kicked off the ground. A few students shot up faster than others while some barely left the ground at all. Neville made a hard shove and got up a few feet, but as soon as he started rising he leaned forward in a minor panic and almost fell back to the earth.

"Now everyone lean forward slightly- _slightly!_- and come back down."

Harry smiled as he landed, pleased that he had avoided the broken wrist. Now he was just worried about how he was getting onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Without Malfoy throwing the Remembrall he wasn't sure how he'd be noticed and simply figured he would have to turn up for tryouts. That was going to be an awkward experience.

"Good." Madame Hooch continued, looking around at the gathered students. A number of Slytherins were exchanging sneers at the simple instruction, something that Hooch was quick to pick up on. "I know many of you have flown on brooms before, but don't get ahead of the rest of the class. You are here to be taught the proper way, and I can assure you all from what I just saw that many of you need to adjust your style."

The Slytherins glared at the teacher, obviously not liking the criticism. She ignored them all and continued with her instructions. "Now, we're going to try that again, except this time you'll be staying in the air. Just straighten out your brooms when you get a few feet up. On my whistle-"

As soon as she blew her whistle the children kicked off again, stopping at random heights and hovering in the air. Some of the students continued moving up or down very slowly, while others seemed to be vibrating oddly. Neither of the brooms on Harry's side had any problems and Harry smiled again at his good choices. Malfoy, who was hovering next to a badly vibrating Crabbe, looked over and noticed Harry's smug look as he was glancing at the brooms beside him and glared. Harry noticed and shrugged guiltily. It wasn't his fault no one else had looked at the brooms they were picking. Neither Hermione nor Neville seemed to be noticing they had the best broomsticks there however, both too nervous about falling and trying to keep straight to pay attention to what was going well.

"Good, now I want you all to turn to your left slowly and begin moving forward in a circle. Stop when you get back to your current positions. Go." Madame Hooch had gotten onto her own Cleansweep and went around making sure the students were flying properly. Once they were all back into their positions Harry began feeling the same restlessness some of the more experienced flyers were having. His first time on a broom had been snatching a small glass ball after a fifty foot dive. This…_funeral march_ flying was getting on his nerves. He had never been forced to fly this tediously before. It seemed like Madame Hooch understood this. "Now, everybody who feels comfortable on your brooms fly over to the right. Everyone who needs more work stay on the left. We're going to split the group up, let's go. Avoid hitting each other."

Harry grinned and flew backward, waving to a horrified looking Hermione and Neville- both of whom were staying on the left for more work.

"Wait- Harry-" Hermione started nervously. Harry felt a rush of affection for her as he noticed her slight flush.

"Don't worry." Harry said, waving off whatever she was about to say. "I'll be fine, and plenty of people aren't good at this. Look." He gestured around to the people who were making their way to the left slowly. By far it was most of the class.

"Harry, be careful! Use both hands!" Hermione squeaked. He grinned guiltily as he noticed he had let go of his handle.

"Sorry Hermione." He said, then looked over to his right. "You don't mind if I go over there though, right? You can come over once you get the feel of it too." Hermione stared at him doubtfully, obviously not under the impression she would ever get the feel of flying. Finally she sighed- her friend's cheerful and carefree demeanor had brought back some of her bossy show of confidence.

"Go do what you want, it really isn't my choice, is it?" She said carelessly. "Just be careful. It'll be your own fault if you fall and break your neck." With that she and Neville made their way over to the left with the rest of the stragglers, and Harry quickly flew over to the right as he felt a rush of excitement. He knew Hermione would never really understand the joy of flying, but he really hoped she would be better about it this time around.

He noticed that Ron was the only other Gryffindor on this part of the field and was reminded that the Weasley's could play Quidditch all they wanted over the summer, and he had probably learned how to fly from his older brothers. There were three Slytherins, Malfoy, Zabini and Parkinson. Ron was scowling at them, and Harry felt that if he hadn't come over when he did there might've been a fight. Ron noticed him appear but didn't say anything. Harry had to wonder if Ron was mad at him simply because he hadn't immediately tried to be friends with him after meeting on the Hogwarts express, but shoved the thoughts aside.

He glanced over at all the other students who Madame Hooch was busy giving directions to and looked around at his assembled group. He broke the tense silence with a simple, "What're we suppose to be doing exactly?"

Malfoy sneered at him. "_We_ are doing whatever we want. As to what _you_ are doing, I have no idea Potter."

"Hmm." Harry didn't respond to Malfoy's comment, instead looking back at the other group. Madame Hooch saw him glance over and called to them, "If you five feel you're up to flying on your own, then you can start practicing. There are some Quaffles right over there if you feel like passing, otherwise just fly around, I'll come and check your progress when I'm done over here."

Harry nodded and looked around for the Quaffles she had point out. Seeing them, he made a quick dive and scoped one up. He turned back around to see the small group watching him, and held up the large ball. "Anyone wanna play?"

Despite what any of them thought of his house or fame, he knew they couldn't deny he was the best flyer there. The Slytherins exchanged glances, but it was surprisingly Ron who asked the question Harry had been expecting.

"Exactly who are you asking?"

Harry raised an eyebrow as Malfoy turned to sneer at the redhead. "Are you implying something Weasel? It's not like you would know how to pass with a real Quaffle, you've probably only played with stolen apples before."

Ron turned crimson and swerved to glare at Malfoy as the other two Slytherins sniggered. "Shut it, Malfoy!"

Harry sighed, so much for a simple game. Noticing, Parkinson glanced over at him disdainfully. "Why should we play with you anyway Potter? Don't think we have better things to do?"

Harry looked over at them carefully. "I just wanted to do something. It's more fun to do it with more people, that's all. You all came over here because you were already good at flying, I figured we could have a good game."

"I'm not going to play anything with a bunch of greasy Slytherins." Ron snapped. "I'd rather fly by myself."

The rest of the group watched, the Slytherins hissing at him slightly as he turned his broom to take a flight around the pitch. Harry turned to the other students, waiting for their answer. Zabini and Parkinson both glanced at Malfoy, who seemed to debate his answer. After a moment he sneered, "I think we can find something better to do, Potter."

With that they turned to get their own Quaffle, and Harry sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. At least he was trying. Feeling eyes on him, he looked around and caught Madame Hooch watching him. Behind her he noticed a few other kids having witnessed what he'd done, and he frowned. Even in the first year they wouldn't leave him alone. Brushing it off he caught Hermione's eye and waved.

"Hey Hermione!" He called, internally grinning as he noticed all the eyes on him turn toward her. "You ready yet? I need someone to play with!"

She turned a bright red and Madame Hooch blew her whistle. "Mister Potter, bring that bag of Quaffles over here. Everybody over here get with a partner." As Harry swooped down to pick up the bag and do as he was told he noticed the teacher say something else to his bushy haired friend which made her go scarlet.

Madame Hooch thanked Harry and began throwing out Quaffles to the groups as she saw them. "Since there seems to be an uneven number of students who needed help Mister Potter, perhaps you'd be kind enough to pair with Miss Granger so no one's left out."

Harry grinned, and turned to motion Hermione over closer to him. He still had his own Quaffle. They were directed to begin passing the ball back and forth, then they were left to their own devices for the rest of the lesson. A number of the students landed before the entire lesson was over and chose to sit in groups talking, but Harry nagged Hermione into staying in the air for as long as they could. Without any serious injuries it wasn't turning out to be that bad of a class, and Hermione didn't seem quite as nervous after being taunted by Harry a few dozen times into stealing the Quaffle from him. He doubted she would grow into a star player, but he was relived to know that she had lost some of her fear. He figured it must've been seeing Neville get injured before ever stepping onto a broomstick that made her unconsciously despise flying in later years. Or maybe it was him crashing to the ground and having his arm broken in various Quidditch games that did it. He wasn't sure. Before the lessons ended Harry approached Madam Hooch on his own about tryouts, since he wouldn't be getting on the team any other way. She seemed to consider him briefly before telling him when Gryffindors were holding theirs. Harry was happy to note that she didn't seem to think his question was a lost cause.

They made their way back to the castle in good spirits at the end of the lesson, going to the Great Hall for dinner. Throughout the meal he noticed a few of the teachers, including Dumbledore, glance at him. He knew it was about what he did during the lesson, but none of them seemed upset in the least so he didn't care. The other Gryffindors, however, were another matter.

"Why," a voice hissed from his side as he began eating, "did you invite that slimy git to play with us?"

Harry looked out the corner of his eye and saw Ron glaring at him. Honestly, Ron was as bad as the Slytherins sometimes, and he shook his head before responding. "I didn't invite anyone to play with 'us'. I invited all of you to play with me, I never said you had to be involved."

"What, you don't think I'm worth hanging out with Potter?" Ron demanded, raising his voice slightly.

The raven haired boy turned to glare at him. "I wasn't the one who flew away at a game invite Weasley. Just because you can't get over you're little ophiophobia doesn't mean I'm going to have the same problem. If I'm bored, or I want to hang out with someone, or I think I might like someone, I'm going to try to be their friend whether or not they're in the same house as me. Now get over it or bugger off."

Harry turned away and went back to his meal, ignoring the eyes that were suddenly on him. He had kept his voice as quiet as he could as not to drag attention to them, but a number of the other Gryffindors sitting around them and the Hufflepuffs at the next table still heard him. Before Ron could explode like he knew he would Harry shook his head and stood up.

"Hey Hermione, I'll see you later alright?" he said, grabbing his bag and making to leave from the hall. Hermione stood up and run after him.

"Harry wait- I'll come too."

He paused for a moment for her to catch up and together they walked out, a number of the eyes from the hall on them- students and teachers alike. They walked silently for a few minutes before Hermione looked around in confusion. "Where are we going?"

Harry stopped. Where were they going? Glancing around he saw they were in a corridor with portraits of food hanging all over the walls. Dear Merlin, what had he done? Hogwarts wasn't ready for SPEW yet. Looking guiltily at his friend he decided it would look suspicious if he suddenly turned around, especially since he hadn't gotten lost in the castle once so far. "Sorry, I, erm, heard the kitchens were down here and thought I'd grab something since I didn't really get to eat in there."

Hermione frowned at him. "Are we _allowed_ to go straight to the kitchens for food? Isn't there a rule against that? It seems like there would be, or students would be going to the kitchens all the time."

"Well, I, err, don't know if it's allowed," Harry began, hoping he sounded more sure of himself to her than he did in his head, "but I don't think there's anything against it either. I heard the Weasley twins talking about it before, I guess the kitchen staff doesn't mind at all."

Hermione frowned again at the mention of the twins. They weren't exactly the most reassuring of people to be following for role models. Harry nudged her, grinning. "Come on Hermione, I'm sure it's fine. Besides, we're already there practically. If they don't want us there, we'll never go there again, okay?"

Hermione bit her lip as she conflicted over the choices, then let out a rushed "Fine! But we're making it quick, agreed?"

Harry nodded and began walking over to a portrait of a bowl of fruit. He inspected it, trying to make it seem like it was his first time there, and slowly reached out to tickle the pear. It gave off a giggle and promptly turned into a doorknob. He felt Hermione tense up nervously behind him as he pulled the door open.

Suddenly they were bombarded with the sounds of utensils and dishes, as well as high pitched voices that were floating around the large room. The two Gryffindors glanced at each other before stepping inside and closing the door behind them. As soon as they entered the room a number of the workers rushed over. Hermione squeaked and Harry tried to hide a grin.

"What can we be doing for you?" one of the creatures asked, bowing. Another came up with a tray of tea followed by a house-elf with a tray of small sandwiches.

"Oh, thank you." He said taking some of the food, knowing Hermione was still in shock from never seeing a house-elf before. The elves beamed at him before they held the tray out to Hermione, who also took some and muttered a thanks. Harry looked over at her reassuringly before turning back to the elves. "We didn't get any supper at the hall, could we by any chance have something to take back to our common room with us?"

"Of course!" the first elf exclaimed, and another group of elves rushed over with various trays of dinner foods and bottled drinks. They quickly wrapped up a large bundle of food- far too much for the two first years, but neither of them wanted to say anything- and put it into a bag with some drinks before handing it to Harry. "Is there anything else you be wanting?"

"No, thank you." Harry replied, beaming at them. "This is great, thanks!"

The house-elves all gave excited comments of it being their pleasure and the two students made their way out. They walked in silence for a moment, Hermione still holding her miniature sandwich in one hand and looked as though she had been informed of her expulsion from Hogwarts. Harry looked over at her with concern, and asked in a cautious voice, "Hermione?"

She blinked, and slowly turned her head toward Harry. "What…who were they?"

"I…think they were elves." Harry replied. "They looked like it. But I was right, you know. They didn't seem to mind us going there at all."

Hermione made a strange sound in the back of her throat and Harry decided not to push the subject for now. Instead, he glanced at his wristwatch and asked her, "Want to go up to the Astronomy Tower to eat? We have time, and nobody's using it right now."

"Oh, okay." Hermione said, finally beginning to regain her composure. Harry smiled and they made their way to the tallest tower.

* * *

Author's Note: First, I want to thank everybody who reviewed and favorited this story! It means a lot, thank you! And for the people who are wondering (since I was asked this in a review and felt it was a question I wanted to address), yes, Harry is going to help Sirius. I'm not saying anything more than that because I don't want to give away any of the plot.

The reason for including some fluffy bits like flying and whatnot is to develop character relationships as well as plot, there are probably a few other instances like that later too. Also, I always liked Snape's little speeches. Does anybody else feel like he uses that for every first year class he teaches? I have to wonder. A last note, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update. It will be at the very least once a month, probably more often, but I don't want to give any exacts and then not be able to update because something comes up. But don't worry, I won't abandon this fic.

Please review! ^^


	3. Unicorn Blood

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

Rating: T

Pairings: Harry x Hermione

Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

* * *

Chapter Three. Unicorn Blood

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

_"HERMIONE!"_

Harry bolted up, feeling himself covered in sweat. Normally his Occlumency would prevent himself from suffering from nightmares, but with the stress of going back and reliving his past he had been neglecting some more important aspects of his old skills. Wiping his brow he checked the time. Harry shook his head and stood up, dragging a pouch out from under his pillow and throwing it over his neck. Next he changed into some comfortable sweater and jeans- it was Saturday and they didn't have to wear their school robes- and left the dormitory. Sleep had become a luxury to him during his past life, and failing to get the needed amount didn't bother him so much anymore. When he first jumped back in time his younger body had needed to adjust to his new/old habits and magic power, but after practicing for over a year it was no longer a problem. He remembered first going over the procedure with Hermione, all the work that had to be done just to get him this far.

_"It's like this Harry," Hermione said, reaching over his shoulder to fix the runic arrangement laid out on the desk. "The feoh looks like an os here, that's not right, and your kalc is off, it's like-"_

_"Hermione!" Harry said, stopping her mid-rant. The girl looked down and Harry motioned toward his pile. "This is only a rough draft, wait until it's done, okay?"_

_Hermione pulled her hand back and nodded mutely, a small flush on her cheeks. Looking around the room she spotted a book lying on the fireplace's mantel and walked over to grab it. Once it was in her hands she opened it briefly, closed it, began walking back over toward Harry but stopped, after looking around she made her way toward the sofa. Harry sighed as he heard her sit down and looked back at his work, but almost immediately there was a rustling sound coming from Hermione's loose blue sweater as she stood up and walked back over to stand behind Harry. After a moment of silence Harry asked, "Do you want to do this?"_

_"If you're having trouble," Hermione responded promptly. Harry just sighed and pushed his chair out to move, letting his friend take over his work. _

_"Sorry Harry," Hermione said guiltily. "I know you can do this, but it has to be perfect-"_

_"I know, I know," the emerald-eyed male replied. He walked over to the abandoned couch and plopped down, watching as Hermione began rearranging his papers. "Did you look up whatever it was you were talking about yesterday? You said it was a catch."_

_There was a pause while Hermione frowned at one of the sheets of notes in front of her. After coming to some conclusion she put it down in a different position and turned to view Harry fully. "Yes, some of the numerals seemed off in the overall arithmancy of the ritual. I wanted to make sure they were right, because if they were than I realized there was going to be a problem once we got back in time. You see, the wizard who made this spell intended its use to be for adults, not children. The entire spell was customized to be used only once and to fit his needs, nobody else's. We know Wirewood died before he was able to use it, so we can't even be fully sure if it'll work."_

_"But we're assuming it will," Harry interrupted, trying to get her to the point. Whenever they spoke about actually using the ritual Hermione would become nervous, and bring up all the impossibilities of the idea and what could happen or go wrong. Admittedly, he wasn't quite a fan of the idea either, but if there was any chance it __**would**__ work, he wasn't going to give it up. "So what's the catch?"_

_"Well, Wirewood's idea was that he could send himself back to his younger body, and relive his youth," Hermione continued, barely registering the fact he had interrupted her. "We know this much from his notes. For this though, he would need to make sure his- what was it?- 'withering cynical brilliance' wouldn't hamper the things he wanted to accomplish while still keeping all of his future knowledge. Wirewood crafted the ritual to send him back to his desired age while keeping his initial youthful instinct present. Do you understand what this __**means**__?"_

_Hermione turned toward Harry, looking at his blank expression desperately. For a twenty-one year old man he could pull of the bemused student rather well. She sighed, and gestured roughly toward the papers on the desk. "It means, that when we go back in time we'll take over the forms of our younger selves and know everything we know now, but we're still going to want to act like children. Bits of our original personalities will leak through what we've become."_

_Harry thought about what Hermione had said, nodding slowly. "Okay, that might be a problem...but Hermione, you've always been mature for your age. And I've never exactly been a kid, if you know what I mean. I think it'll be fine, we'll just need to make sure we keep on track, that's all." Noticing her opening her mouth to argue he plowed on. "What about the attachment spell you were adding on it? To give us an item we can take back with us? We can add some sort of guide into our object, so we'll know what we're suppose to be doing."_

_"That's giving me some trouble, but it should work," Hermione relented. "We'll vanish the objects during the beginning of the ritual after putting a special Name on them, then we can summon them from their nonexistent state once we're our younger selves. We just need to decide what we're bringing back- if it has too irregular of a magical signature than it could make the spell more difficult. If it works at all."_

The spell had ended up working after Hermione tried it various times, the main concern having been whether they could still summon their objects after going to the past when they wouldn't have yet existed. They had been relying on the theory that vanished objects go both nowhere and everywhere, including different times. Harry was able to come back in time on his own after Hermione had passed away and the scroll finished setting. The change had been rough, and it took a while for Harry to be able to keep his magic from getting out of his control with his ten-year old temper. He admitted that it hadn't made his tenth birthday very fun, but he hadn't been willing to risk trying for eleven and not having enough time to prepare for Hogwarts.

Creeping quietly into the common room he looked around to make sure there was no one else awake. Once he had checked thoroughly, he opened the pouch around his neck and pulled out two objects he didn't want anyone else to see. His invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map, both from his original timeline. Before jumping back he collected all the valuable items he had or that would be needed for the war and stored them inside his pouch, which had a feather light spell and extension charm so it could carry much more than what it appeared to be able to. He had gotten Hermione to do it for him in the original timeline, taking the idea from her beaded handbag. Unlike her bag however, his was made of Mokeskin, the last present he ever received from Hagrid, and had special traits to avoid anything inside being stolen.

Throwing the cloak around his shoulders and pulling it over him, he checked the map and carefully made his way out of the common room. The castle was empty at this time of night, and he began wandering around, thinking of what he should do. Finally he reached a decision and began making his way out to the lake to relax. He carefully pushed his way out of the front doors and down to the lake, following the shore with the Forbidden Forest behind him. Once he reached a part of the lake that was hidden behind a clump of trees Harry sat down, watching the water lap against the rocks near him. The air was cool, but it was still early enough in the season where his sweater was enough to keep him warm. He was so enthralled in simply staring at the moon's reflection that he didn't notice the sound of hooves coming up behind him. The moment he did he stiffened, but quickly relaxed as he remembered he hadn't taken his cloak off. There was no way a centaur would notice him. It didn't stop him from being nervous however, and he glanced to his side. Only to find it wasn't a centaur.

A large black Thestral was sniffing around the shore covered in shadow, and it seemed to be getting closer to where he was sitting. Harry reached out an invisible hand and stroked its neck, hoping it wasn't going to freak and bite him. It turned its head toward him at the touch, but didn't make any aggressive movements. Harry smiled and pulled off his cloak. They were creepy as hell, but he kind of liked the skeletally winged horses. Once it was able to see him it came closer, giving him another few sniffs before turning to the lack shore. Apparently, now that it know what he was it wasn't interested. Harry laughed, wishing half the wizarding world was like that. He continued to stroke the creature, marveling at the fact that he could still see it when his fingers ran across something sticky. He pulled back suddenly and inspected his hand in the moonlight.

It was a silvery-blue liquid and shone brightly once it was in the rays of the moon. Harry felt himself choke, and swerved his head back up at the Thestral. He got up slowly, trying not to startle the creature while pulling out his wand to cast _Lumos_. The foreign blood was splattered along its side, and Harry felt himself stumble back. When were the unicorns suppose to start being attacked? Not this soon, surely. Why was there unicorn blood here then? Harry fought to stay calm. He hadn't done enough to change such an important event, he barely acknowledged Quirrell at all. Then he had to pause and wonder- maybe nothing had changed. Was Hagrid certain that the unicorns were only attacked later? Could there have been a few he didn't notice dying before that? Harry nodded mutely. He would have to visit Hagrid after tryouts that day. Until then, he quickly conjured up a vial and summoned the blood on the Thestral's body to go in the container. He had no idea if he would ever find a use for unicorn blood later, but he knew that if he did he would never have the courage to kill one of the creatures himself, so this was the best he was going to be able to do.

"Hey…" he asked the Thestral quietly. It turned its head to look at him. "C-could you bring me to wherever this unicorn was hurt?" He held up the vial and felt his voice stutter- not out of fear of the Thestral but horror at what he was actually about to do. The creature looked at him for a moment before turning its head back toward the forest. "If it's still alive I can try to help it. If not…"

There was a silence. Then the Thestral looked back toward Harry, and next thing he knew he had thrown his cloak back onto him and clambered onto its back. It flapped its wings and they were flying straight into the forest at an amazing speed. Harry watched as the trees blurred past him, and tightened his grip as they swerved to avoid branches and vines. The trip seemed to go on for a long time, the trees getting thicker the further in to the forest they got. Finally he felt them beginning to slow down and he caught sight of silvery blood glinting wherever the moon crept through the branches. There was a large puddle of the liquid where the Thestral finally stopped, and Harry felt himself let out a shaky breath. If the unicorn wasn't here it meant it might still be alive. He wasn't sure why he cared so much, but he realized he did, and that was all that mattered. He looked around, the trees were extremely thick and he wondered how they hadn't crashed into something during flight. This unicorn was obviously much deeper into the forest than the first one Hagrid would find later. In a way this comforted Harry, because it meant that it was quite likely nothing had changed so far.

He climbed down from the Thestral's back, glancing at it in worry that it would fly away. It seemed content to shuffle along behind him however, as if it knew he would be needing a ride back and was willing to wait for him. Harry pat its neck gratefully and made his way toward the puddle of blood, looking for a trail that would lead away from it. Seeing the globs continue deeper into the forest he lifted his wand and cast a soft _Lumos _spell, hoping Quirrell wasn't still nearby to notice. He followed the straggly line over the knotted tree roots- he was certain that this was the deepest into the forest he'd ever been before. After a heart stopping moment when he stepped onto a twig that let out an audible crack, he silently cast a muffling charm on his shoes as not to make any more noise when he walked. After what seemed like hours of searching Harry finally spotted a white glow coming from between two large trees, and made his way over warily, keeping to the shadows of the foliage.

The sight made him want to throw up and cry in relief all at the same time. The unicorn was obviously badly hurt with its blood spilling around the tree roots while it lay in a crumpled heap, but there wasn't any cloaked figure around trying to drink from it, so he figured it had gotten away in time. Harry moved forward cautiously, making sure it wasn't a trap set up for him and made a sweep of the area with some detection spells to ensure that there weren't any other creatures nearby save the Thestral that had stopped just behind one of the trees to watch him.

Finally pleased that he wasn't in danger, Harry knelt beside the unicorn and began inspecting the damage. It looked like it had been hit with a severe cutting hex along its thigh and its leg was swollen. "Hey, err, girl." Harry began in a calm voice, trying to alert it to his presence without startling it. "I'm going to try to help you, okay? So just stay calm, I won't hurt you."

The unicorn made no acknowledgment of him, and Harry hoped that it was still alright. He pulled out a book from his pouch titled _The Art of Healing: Volume 3 - Magical Creatures_. He had originally bought the series of books for the human aspects, but after saving Dobby from a fatal stab wound with the others in the set he had begun carrying them all around with him. He flipped the book open to the section on magical horses and quickly looked at the heading of 'wounds'. It wasn't until after he had finished cleaning it and casting the appropriate charms to still blood loss that he heard a noise coming from his right. He spun toward the noise and raised his wand. A moment later he identified the sound of hooves and lowered it fractionally.

From behind one of the trees a trio of centaurs stepped forward, ones Harry recognized from his time in the forest in the past life. They stopped upon seeing someone kneeling beside a fallen unicorn, and the tiny space grew deathly silent, but Harry could care less what it looked like to them. Instead he turned back to the creature in front of him, trying to remember where he had left off.

"What are you doing, boy?" the black haired centaur called Bane asked. He was looking between the two of them suspiciously, but at least Harry had the grim pleasure of knowing they didn't seem to think he was responsible for its injury.

"Trying to help," Harry said, glancing back down at the book. There was silence between them again as Harry found the next spell that he cast silently onto the wound. He felt a wave of relief as he saw the wound begin returning to a healthier color instead of the sickly pale it had been growing.

"How did you know the unicorn needed help?" Firenze questioned quietly, walking over to stand closer behind Harry.

Harry jerked his head back at the Thestral that had settled down behind him while muttering a spell under his breath. Finally he answered, "Saw the blood on the Thestral down by the lake and I asked him to bring me here." Then he decided to ask his own question. "Why are you here?"

There was a moment of pregnant silence before Bane answered, "Mars is growing brighter."

Harry resisted snorting. It would figure, even at a time like this he wouldn't get a straight answer from them. He cast another few spells, and was glad to see the wound finally close itself. He leaned back and sighed, running his hand through his short raven locks- only to regret it a moment later when he discovered that there was now blood all over his hair as well as hands and clothes. He looked down at himself, indeed, he was soaked through with the glimmering liquid. He glanced at the unicorn in worry, hoping he had done enough to help it survive. He couldn't replace its blood the same way he could with a human- he simply didn't have the resources to do it. They sat in silence, the only sound being the slightly labored breathing of the unicorn which was growing steadily better.

Unable to hold himself back any longer he turned and looked at the three centaurs. "Do you think she'll be alright?"

If the question surprised them they didn't show it. Instead Ronan stepped forward and knelt down to look at the closed wound, and he seemed to come to a conclusion after debated thought. "The healing was done well. It is up to the unicorn now if she'll survive."

"But do you think-?"

"Mars is getting brighter," Bane answered, gazing at the sky between the trees. Harry resisted smacking himself in the head repeatedly. These people were bloody annoying- whatever else they might also be. They fell silent, not saying anything. Finally Harry felt a tug of weariness pulling at his vision and decided that he had done all he could. He stood up shakily, the exhaustion of his magic and pure fatigue taking its effect.

"I've done all I can think of to do," he said, rubbing his eyes while ignoring the sticky feeling he got from the blood clinging to his face. He checked his watch and sighed. 4:43 in the morning. He was pleased that Quidditch tryouts weren't until after dinner or he doubted he'd be able to attend. He slowly made his was over to the Thestral which got up as it saw him approaching. Harry turned and gave the best wave he could muster to the centaurs before saying, "I have to get back to the castle. Take care."

"You as well, Harry Potter," Firenze said as the centaurs watched Harry stumble onto the Thestral's back while slipping his cloak back over his shoulders and taking off. He whispered instructions asking it to take him straight to Gryffindor Tower and the creature complied. Instead of weaving its way through the forest like before it shot straight up so it was over the trees, and flew toward the castle without the previous jolting. Harry climbed through the tower window after checking the map for anybody's presence and stroked the Thestral's neck in thanks. He watched it fly back to the forest before turning around and heading toward the showers to wash up.

Walking back to the dormitory after his quick shower he began hearing a commotion, and quietly opened the door to peer inside.

"Mister Potter!"

He jumped, and looked wide-eyed at their Head of House standing in their dormitory, glaring at him with a livid expression on her face. "Eh?" was the only genius reply he could think of.

"Where have you been?" she asked in an icy voice. "Wandering around the castle with Misters Weasley and Longbottom perhaps?"

"Huh?" He asked again, looking around the dormitory. Both Seamus and Dean were watching him, but for the first time he noticed his other two dormitory companions missing. Where were they? Neville wasn't the type to just wander off, and it had always been him who got Ron into that kind of trouble. "Wandering around the-?" Deciding he would sort that out later he turned back to his Head of House, who was glaring at him while waiting for a response. "I don't know what you're talking about, Professor."

"I couldn't sleep so I figured I'd go take a shower," He gestured toward his wet hair. McGonagall watched him for a long moment, as though trying to detect a lie.

"And how long where you in there for exactly Mister Potter? Mister Weasley reported that your bed had been empty for quite some time."

Harry felt his jaw drop. The Weasel had done _what?!_ He felt a flush build up on his face and- trying to figure out what he was going to do to the redhead later- answered her question. "I was down in the common room reading for a while first, Professor." He held up his book to show he wasn't lying. Well, not completely. "I saw the time and decided for a shower before everyone else would be waking up. I haven't been wandering around the castle ma'am." Which was again true. Sort of. He had been wandering around the forest, not the castle. If you didn't count going through the castle to get to the forest.

She seemed to take in his insulted expression, and proof that he did look wet and was carrying his reading material as a sign that he was telling her the truth, because she nodded. "Very well Mister Potter. I have some business I need to go back to, for now you should all return to bed."

The three remaining Gryffindors watched her go silently. Finally Harry turned to look at his roommates. "What the bloody hell is going on?" He demanded tiredly.

"Wish we knew mate," Dean replied before rolling back onto his bed. Seamus shrugged, and Harry shook his head in defeat, figuring he'd find out the next day.

"How long do you plan to stay in bed?" An annoyed voiced asked, pulling back his curtains and letting in the burning light.

"Merlin Hermione!" Harry said, turning over to avoid being hit by the harsh rays that were seeking his cozy flesh and sleepy retinas. He swore the sun was really a magical creature that wanted to destroy all sleepers, there was really no other way to explain it. "It's Saturday!"

"Yes, and breakfast is almost over," she continued. "Weren't you going to try out for Quidditch later? That means you need to get your homework done now. Come on, I've already planned out what we're doing first. Snape's essay is rather long, we should get to start on it sooner, and we still need to practice for Charms. Are you up yet?"

"Yes Hermione," he droned, rolling into a sitting position as he looked around for his discarded shirt. He was still wearing his pants, so he didn't care for Hermione's presence. Even if he did, she was standing over by the window looking out toward the forest, so she didn't see him getting up. "Then we need to work on our charts for Astronomy. After that we can go to lunch, finish our Herbology homework and Transfiguration essay. I already did my Defense Against the Darks Arts work, you did too, right?"

"Yeah, finished that last night," Harry said throwing his pouch over his neck and motioning to her that he was ready to go. "We got hit hard with homework this weekend though. We normally don't have this much."

"We did," Hermione said, walking down the spiral staircase. She still seemed to be in an extremely annoyed mood. "It would figure that today you wanted to waste time on a broomstick."

Harry frowned. "Err, something up?"

"You haven't _heard_?" She said, turning back to look at him even more crossly.

"I was sleeping," he reminded her with an exasperated grin.

"We lost a hundred house points last night."

It took a moment for her words to sink in, then Harry blanched. "What?"

"Yes, thanks to those selfish, immature, disrespectful prats! I can't even believe they would do something like that, honestly, you'd think they could just grow up. But no, Ronald and Neville- I can't even believe Neville got dragged into it, he's normally so quiet!- but Ronald and Neville were both caught, wandering around school after hours! They lost us a hundred house points! Fifty each!" Everything was said extremely quickly, and Hermione took a long breath, trying to calm herself down. Reaching the foot of the stairs she looked back at him. "I heard they tried to drag you into it as well."

Flashes of the night before came back, and Harry recalled what McGonagall had been saying. "Yeah…" Harry said, "Professor McGonagall was in the tower this morning. She asked me where I'd been-"

"Where you'd been?" Hermione practically shrieked. "You mean you weren't _there_?!"

"I was coming back from taking a shower," Harry lied defensively. "I couldn't sleep, so I read a book for a while and took a shower. When I went back to bed she was there and asked me where I'd been. I guess Weasley said something to her."

"Harry, you should wait until morning to do things like that! What if you hadn't come back in time, you could have lost us even more points!" Hermione said.

Harry stopped and sent a minor glare at her, saying in a flat voice, "Hermione, I didn't do anything wrong last night." He couldn't consider saving a unicorn wrong, even if he had been breaking rules to do it. "If I hadn't come back in time I would have seen her in the morning to straighten things out. Don't worry about it so much."

"Don't worry?" Hermione repeated, but her voice had gotten a little calmer. "Of course I'm going to worry!"

Harry shook his head. "Come on, let's get some food, I'm starving." Then he added with a grin, "My epic nighttime adventures wore me out."

Hermione huffed behind him, sending a glare into his back.

As soon as they entered the Great Hall the entire Gryffindor table turned to see who'd entered. Noticing it wasn't who they wanted- err, didn't want- they went grudgingly back to their food. The air was thick as Harry and Hermione sat down, pulling food trays toward them silently. Harry felt it was extremely awkward that for once this atmosphere wasn't directed at him, and was afraid that if he made a sound he would be gutted for disturbing the other Gryffindors anger. Hearing the doors open behind him he felt the others turn around. The table went absolutely silent- how did it go silent? Harry briefly wondered, it was already silent!- and he knew that Ron or Neville had entered. After a moment he heard a small squeak beside him, and looked to his side to see Neville standing there, almost begging with his eyes for a seat. He saw Hermione was glaring at him along with everyone else, but knowing how he had always felt whenever this happened to him nodded his head and let the boy sit beside him. A number of the tables glares were turned on him.

Ignoring them all he asked in a neutral and quiet voice, "What happened last night? I know you, it seems a little odd for you to just get up and cause trouble. Something else must be going on, am I right?"

Neville nodded, but he still seemed scared by the way he was looking around at the table. Hermione looked over with interest, although she didn't seem quite as forgiving as Harry. "Whatever it was it was wrong! Why would you do something like that, did you even think?"

"Hermione," Harry said, glancing at her. "I want to hear this, then I want to decide if it was wrong. There's a difference, you know."

She looked completely confused, as did Neville. Nobody else was within earshot. "A difference in what?" The bushy haired girl asked finally, frowning.

"Breaking the rules and doing something that's wrong," Harry replied, shrugging. He turned to look at Neville. "You should eat something, I have a feeling you'll need it."

Hermione looked completely aghast. "What are you talking about Harry? Rules are rules because breaking them _is_ wrong! That's why they exist!"

"I disagree," He said calmly. "Right and wrong are differences in perspective. You've heard the expression, 'there is no black and white, only shades of grey' before, right? Rules are made by people with one perspective, but they might be followed by someone with another. If I left the common room after hours and wandered around the castle out of boredom, that might be wrong-"

"That would be wrong!"

"-but if I left the common room because I knew my friend was lying unconscious in a bathroom somewhere for some reason, it would be okay."

"What? That's ridiculous! How would you even know if something like that had happened? You would have had to have seen the unconscious friend first, before you left the common room, and then it'd be wrong to walk away until after hours just to go back and help them! That, or you left the common room first for no reason, then found the friend, in which case the action of leaving would still be wrong, even if they did something right while you were out!" Hermione huffed.

Harry cringed. "Alright, alright. Not the best of examples."

"I would say!"

"Anyway…" Harry said, rubbing his neck while trying to find the right words. "Listen, I don't know how to say it, but I know what I'm saying, okay? I just want to know why. The reason is more important than the action to me, okay?"

Neville had been listening to their conversation silently, but as Harry turned back to look at him, he gulped. "I-it was…well…Y-yesterday, after you and Hermione left dinner, M-Malfoy came over. He started saying some things, and him and Ron got into a fight. So t-they a-agreed to meet each other this morning for a W-wizards Duel. At three thirty in the Trophy Room. I heard him get up and I woke up, but by that time y-you were gone." He looked at Harry like he had been betrayed. "Ron thought you had found out and gone to tell McGonagall. I-I tired to stop him, but he told me to b-bugger off and that he was going to go to meet Malfoy, t-then find you and make sure you didn't tell anyone. I only meant to follow him out a little!" Neville suddenly said with emphasis. "B-But when I went to go back inside the Fat Lady was g-gone. I didn't want to stay out there and get caught! A-and you were gone!"

"He thought I had someone managed to find out at three in the morning and would run off to tattle on him?" Harry asked incredulously. "At three in the morning? I was…honestly."

"But where _were_ _you_?" Neville asked. "You weren't in your bed, you weren't in the common room…" Hermione's head snapped up, and she swerved to view Harry.

He shrugged. "We probably just missed each other when I was off to the bathroom, but I was reading for most of the morning down in the common room." He appreciated the way the prospect of torture could make him into a better liar. For most of his youth the first time he couldn't tell a lie to save his life.

"O-oh," Neville said quietly, looking down.

"Sorry Nev," Harry said, trying to make it seem what he did really wasn't so bad and coach the boy's confidence up a little, knowing his ego was going to be suffering with everything else. Neville muttered something under his breath waving it off, but didn't seem to brighten up any.

"Harry," Hermione said, catching his attention. She motioned toward his watch. "We have to go to the library to start our homework." She looked uncertainly at Neville, and deciding to follow her friend's example asked, "Would you like to come with us?"

The round faced boy looked up and shook his head. "No thanks Hermione, I'm…just going to go back to the common room. Thanks guys."

They both watched him slump off out of the Great Hall, which was less crowded then it had been when they first entered. Exchanging glances they got up and followed their friend out, but turned in a different direction as they headed off to start their work.

That night after supper Harry went down to the field with Hermione, whom had brought a book to enjoy while waiting for Harry's turn. Possibly even during Harry's turn, the boy wasn't completely sure. He was happy that she was coming at all however, and didn't push the issue. The night was cool, and it was still light enough for them to see the grounds clearly. Wood was waiting down by the pitch and inspecting some of the brooms that the applicants would be flying, a grim line forming on his lips. The rest of the team players were lounging around, looking the field over and glancing at the people who had come down. Harry had desperately wanted to pull out his Firebolt (which he had gone back to retrieve later in the war; the Dursley's never went back to Private Drive and the Death Eaters had ignored his small pile of belongings while searching for him- it had been one of the few things he had found comfort in once things had gotten much worse) but knew it wouldn't be possible since it wasn't invented yet. Instead he picked up one of the better brooms from the pile Wood was standing by.

The Keeper saw him and nodded, unsurprised by him showing up. Harry had to figure that Madame Hooch had given Wood the information of everybody that would be coming down. Then he frowned. She hadn't done that for him when he was Quidditch Captain. Could it be she actually mentioned him because she thought he was a good choice? That would be even better. He noticed another student come over to grab a broom and was both relieved and disappointed when he saw it was McLaggen. He looked over to the side and noticed that there was a small group of people waiting. After thinking for a moment he remembered that there was also a chaser being replaced at the same time. He saw Katie Bell in the group, but she wasn't looking over at him so he didn't say anything.

"Who is that?" Wood asked frowning as he motioned toward Hermione's figure sitting in the stands. "I wanted to keep this as private as possible."

"Who do you think it is?" Fred asked sarcastically while George nodded his head toward Harry. Wood glanced at the raven haired boy before back at the stands and made a small nod, turning to walk over to the people trying out. Harry stared at him before turning to look at Fred and George. What the hell was that? The two of them just grinned before looking after their captain. Wood motioned for the Gryffindors trying for Seeker to stand back while the Chasers were given their tryout first. There were three of them who stepped aside, Harry, a boy he recognized as Towler from Fred and George's year, and McLaggen. What McLaggen was playing at with trying to be Seeker Harry had no idea since his build suggested either a Beater or Keeper.

Deciding it wasn't his business Harry watched as the hopeful-to-be-Chasers flew the length of the pitch and back. Afterward Wood directed them to try to get five Quaffles into the hoop while he protected it. Harry was pleased to see that Katie had done the best and was given the position while the rest of the people slowly made their way back up to the castle after putting their brooms away, instead of staying to watch. Giving a few last directions to Katie, Wood sent her to stand with the rest of the team and turned to the next group.

"Alright. All of you over here are applying for the position of Seeker." He began, pacing back and forth while he gave his brief lecture. "The position of Seeker is one of the hardest in the game to play, you need to be fast and able to avoid all of the opposition coming at you. As Seeker you are most likely to fouled or injured. The other team will be trying to take you out before any of us, and I need you to understand your danger before joining the team." Wood stopped and turned a determined glare at the three gathered. "We will not allow for cowardice from any of our players. Catching the Snitch comes first, protecting yourself comes later. Do you all understand this?"

The three Gryffindors nodded- Harry oppressed a grin as he remembered all of the injuries he had gotten from Quidditch over the years- and Wood looked at them each in turn. Harry glanced at his side and saw that McLaggen had a bored expression on his face, obviously not believing he would be in much risk if he was picked. Towler seemed a little put off but nodded all the same. Something must have shown on Harry's face, because Wood spent a moment longer looking at him before nodding and pointing to the end of the field at the goal hoops.

"For the first test, I want you each to fly to the end and back. This is to check how well and fast you can fly with what you have. Obviously, you're all using school brooms so they aren't the best models and it won't be a fair race so we're not judging who gets back first. Get ready, you go at three."

The three mounted and their brooms, and as soon as Wood gave the signal, took off.

-:-:-:-

Fred gave his brother a nudge in the ribs as he watched the three take flight.

"Was it just me," he asked in a soft, grinning voice, "or did Potter look almost _happy_ when Wood told him he might get his skull cracked open?"

"A masochist, perhaps?" George said back with a similar mischievous tone.

The rest of the team glanced over at them, mixtures of disgust and amusement at what they were saying.

"Focus!" Wood called to his teammates as the three flyers came back, Harry in the lead.

-:-:-:-

Harry landed, knowing he had done perfect in the quick flight. Towler was an average flyer, something that wasn't good enough for Seeker, but McLaggen hadn't done that badly- although his body type played against him. They weren't very good competition and Harry knew that he had the position nailed. The two other flyers landed beside him after another moment and Wood looked back at them.

"Alright, none of you fell off your brooms so you're all good so far." Wood said, inspecting the people again. "Next is the real test. We'll be judging how well you can catch and dodge, simultaneously. Whoever catches and dodges the most will get the position. Let's start with Towler."

Harry watched as both of the other Gryffindors gave their attempts. Towler had dodged more than caught and McLaggen had done about the same. They were dodging balls roughly the same size as bludgers which were smacked at them by the Weasley twins, and they were suppose to catch golf balls that were thrown by the Chasers. Once it was Harry's turn he quickly mounted his broom and shot up in the air to join his soon-to-be-team. He didn't have the slightest doubt that he could do better than the both of the others, but tried not to look too smug either.

Harry caught all ten of the golf balls that were thrown, even the two that were thrown at the same time in different directions. He had also dodged all but one of the balls being aimed at him. Harry knew that what Wood really wanted was someone who would be able to get the snitch, not someone who'd be dodging a lot, so he didn't mind getting hit once. In truth the balls weren't nearly as hard as a bludger. At the end Wood was extremely pleased with how the try-outs went, and he sent the other two off while he spoke to the new Gryffindor Quidditch team. McLaggen was fuming, but the results had been obvious to everyone and there was nothing he could do.

"The both of you were brilliant!" Wood said happily. "Potter, you're going to need a new broom if you actually want to be able to catch the snitch, but I'll talk to Professor McGonagall about that tomorrow. This year for certain, that cup will have our names on it. I'll contact you all for the next practice, that's it for now."

With that the team left, chatting to its other members. Harry stopped by the foot of the stairs to wait for Hermione to come down. When she did she seemed pleased, and they departed to the castle a short way behind everybody else. "Congratulations Harry! You did really well. Was the other day really your first time flying? I know you said it was but you were brilliant out there. The other two weren't nearly as good you know."

Harry gave a goofy grin, feeling oddly happy despite his intentions. Hermione had never really complimented his flying before, she would only say how worried she was after he had crashed fifty feet to the ground. Hopefully she wouldn't return to that after the first game.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who reviewed, favorited, and put this story on their alerts! I can't believe how many people have actually noticed this fic, it makes me really happy to see that people like it. Thanks!

This chapter was suppose to include Halloween as well, but it started getting a little long so I split the events up and made the Quidditch try-outs take a bit longer. The only reason why I'm including so much about flying early on is because it's something Harry enjoys, and playing Quidditch just gives him an excuse to fly more often. Also, a small note about Draco. He isn't exactly a "good-guy" in this story but he isn't evil either. Not for the entire time at least. He'll be explain more later though, which is something I don't want to give away now.

Also, one last thing. At the end of the last chapter, I mentioned the two of them going to the Astronomy Tower, which as I so brilliantly forgot, can be interpreted as a place for couples ^^;. That's not what I meant by it, although this is a HHr fic so it can be viewed that way. Their relationship remains as just friends to minor crushes until about the third or fourth year. I don't like fanfics that rush those things, so I'm going to try not to. Just wanted to point that out. ^^;

Please review! ^^


	4. He Came for Me

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

Rating: T  
Pairings: Harry x Hermione  
Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

* * *

Chapter Four. He Came for Me

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

_"Harry, please, I thought things were going well between us."_

_Harry shook his head. The girl became even more upset, glaring at him while tears began entering her eyes. Harry hated himself at the moment, she wasn't the type to cry. Why was he doing this?_

_"What? Is this because of __**Ron**__?" Ginny snarled. "Just because __**he**__ left the two of you? I'm not like that Harry!"_

_"I know Gin, it's not-" a palm raked across his face, halting his speech before he could say anymore. In retrospect, he would be happy that it wasn't a fist. She was glaring at him lividly, breathing hard. There was a long moment of silence where neither of them said anything or made any move to leave. Finally, Harry whispered his reason._

_"I'm quitting the Order."_

_The youngest Weasley gasped, her eyes widening as she stared at the wizarding Savior. He continued, keeping his eyes trained to the floor so he wouldn't have to look at her. "I just can't stay here any more Ginny. I can't deal with __**him**__. I'll still fight, but not with all of you." There was a pause. "I've already told Dumbledore."_

_"B-but why?" she asked quietly. "Surely it can't be that bad?"_

_"It is, I'm sorry," Harry replied, turning to look out the rooms window. The Muggle street outside of Grimmauld Place was as dreary as ever, setting the mood to their conversation. This wasn't a talk he wanted to have with her. The only one who knew all of it was Hermione, and he planned on keeping it that way. "It would be too much to keep a relationship with you after I leave, think about it. We wouldn't be allowed to see each other for fear of letting out information, and it'd be too dangerous to try meeting each other in secret. Voldemort could always use one of us to get at both organizations. It's just easier this way."_

_He couldn't even remember what had made him think trying for a relationship with her during the war would be a good idea. It had been so long since either of them had really had someone to be with that it just kind of happened. At first it was a mistake, she came into his room one night and the rest was history. They tried to keep it out of the way, but eventually it occurred more often, and soon they couldn't even deny they were doing something with each other. _

_"Organization__**s**__?" Ginny asked, a hopeful note entering her voice. "You mean you'll be starting something to? I can go with you! You'll need members, you can't have gotten everything already."_

_"Ginny…"_

_"Why not?!" She screeched. "Do you want me gone so badly?! I want to be with you! I don't care who you are, I don't care if you're his target, I don't care if I get hurt, __**I want to be with you**__!" _

_Harry shook his head and she broke. Ginny collapsed to the floor, bringing her fists up to bury her face into and started sobbing uncontrollably. Harry stood there listening for a long minute before turning to leave. As he walked past her he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder for the briefest second before exiting the room and closing the door behind him. Looking around he saw Hermione standing in the corner of the hall, having listened to the entire discussion silently. _

_"I'm sorry Harry." She whispered. He shook his head and motioned to the stairway, indicating that it was time for them to leave the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix for the final time. _

Harry had just finished getting dressed when Hermione came into the boys dormitory to collect him. It had become their ritual; if Harry woke before she did he would wait for her in the common room, if he had had trouble sleeping the night before then she would come and wake him up. It hadn't taken very long for Hermione to notice he had trouble sleeping on a regular basis. She had suggested he go to the school nurse and see if he could take some medicine for it, but he brushed it off and told her it was fine. She would still nag him- every morning that she had to wake him up, but he knew she was only worried so it didn't bother him.

It had been two months since they had first gotten to Hogwarts. Harry had quickly become the pride and joy of the Gryffindor Quidditch team after receiving his Nimbus Two Thousand, and he and Hermione were the best students of their year, competing for top marks on everything. Harry had thought he would have easily beaten her with his future knowledge, but after getting lower scores than her on the first few projects he had quickly put effort into studying the things he already knew. She was still be more thorough about the subject itself, but Harry was more creative with linking topics to other areas of magic and improvising spell work. In a manner he was happy that she could compete with a twenty-two year old war veteran, it was proof if he ever needed any of her brilliance as a young witch.

They went down to breakfast, enjoying the signs that Halloween had finally appeared. There was the smell of baking pumpkin in the corridors and a few stray bats flying around the castle who had escaped from wherever they had been being kept. The two of them sat down at the Gryffindor table chatting animatedly about their lessons which were becoming more interesting as time went on. Harry already knew all of it and was busy learning Hidden Arts during the night, but he still kept up with her interest. Eventually he would ask her to join him in the extra lessons he imposed on himself, but he didn't think that the first year was the best time to do it. If they were still best friends by the beginning of the second year- which Harry saw no reason why they wouldn't be- he would begin showing them to her then.

During their first class of the day Professor Flitwick surprised them all by saying they were ready to make things fly, which was something all of the students were looking forward to. He put them in pairs to practice, with Hermione and Harry together (which had become a normal thing for them) and Neville and Ron working at the table beside them. Harry was jotting down something in his notebook (which he used over wizard parchment) while he waited for Hermione to get the spell right. This was something that had become a habit for him to do. When Hermione had confronted him about it after the third week he had admitted it, saying sheepishly he had simply been trying to be chivalric. In truth a part of him felt guilty about doing better than her when in the original timeline she'd gotten most spells right first, and it felt like cheating by using his future knowledge. While she had huffed and walked away he knew she wasn't really mad about it, especially since she had already told him in an annoyed conversation that he seemed to get the feel of spells better. It was a familiar conversation that caught his attention.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Harry heard Ron practically shout. He glanced up as he heard Hermione huff.

"You're saying it wrong." Hermione told the boy next to her. "It's Wing-_gar_-dium Levi-_o_-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever." Ron snapped back.

Hermione sniffed and turned back to her feather, flicking her wand and saying clearly, "_Wingardium Leviosa_!"

The feather flew up in the air, hovering over the students heads. Ron glared at her as the teacher clapped. "Well done Miss Granger! Everyone, see here, Miss Granger's got it!" Flitwick turned to look at Harry, who still had his notebook open. "Would you care to try Mister Potter?"

Harry flushed as he closed his notes, hearing a small 'hmph' from Hermione, clearly indicating something close to 'I told you so'. He wasn't quite sure what she was proving, though he had no doubt it was something. He pulled his wand out of his holster- something that had gained a few surprised glances during the first week but was expected by now- and cast the spell. "_Wingardium Leviosa_."

His feather joined Hermione's in the air, although he pushed it a little higher than hers was out of amusement. She sent a mock glare at him but the Professor clapped again. "Five points to Gryffindor for the both of you! Wonderful jobs."

Their spirits were high as they left class, and a glare from Harry as the redhead was about to open his mouth kept Ron quiet. Their next class passed just as nicely, and heading to the Great Hall for lunch gave them an even bigger sense that the holiday was there. Nothing was yet set up, but everybody's spirits seemed to say something about the holiday.

No crying Hermione, which meant no situation with the troll. Harry mentally patted himself on the back. There was just one more thing he had planned for that day, and this Halloween would be perfect. In fact, it could become his favorite holiday if everything went according to plan. That was saying a lot considering it was the day his parents died, and it was in a cheerful spirit that Harry excused himself from lunch early to grab a book from the common room that he 'forgot' for the next class. Hermione simply huffed and told him not to be late.

Harry sprinted up the steps to Gryffindor Tower, trying to force the mad grin off of his face. By the end of year he might have a _home_! He gave the password to the fat lady and entered the common room. He wouldn't go back to the Dursley's, _ever_. He opened the door to his dormitory and looked around. The traitor was going to get kissed. That, or life in Azkaban.

Harry had been debating for a long time how he was suppose to help Sirius, and this was one of the best scenarios he could think of. All he had to do was wait long enough so Scabbers's disappearance wouldn't be suspicious and he could send the animagus to the Ministry for examination. With the right excuse and a convincing enough letter, an auror would realize the wizard wasn't registered and he'd have to be questioned- and knowing Pettigrew's ability to lie that would only lead to one thing. Sirius's freedom. If for some reason this didn't work, Harry would go to Plan B. Use his Boy-Who-Lived status and publicly accuse the Ministry of failing to give proper trials of the last war's criminals. He was sure he could find a way to cause enough trouble for the Ministry to throw Sirius on trial, wrongfully expecting to put him straight back in Azkaban only to be proved wrong in a very humiliating fashion. Harry was hoping not to have to resort to something like that however, and turned his mind back to the task at hand.

Seeing Scabbers snoozing on Ron's pillow Harry smiled. He turned to his trunk and began digging around inside of it. He had left the container in the dormitory on purpose, just so he could grab it without having to reach inside his pouch. Bringing out the box he closed his trunk and pulled out the map, keeping his back turned to the rat laying on the bed. Ron was still in the Great Hall, and none of the other boys were coming up to the common room either. Smiling he wiped it and put it back inside of his pocket. He brought out his wand and turned around, as though idly checking the dormitory. Scabbers hadn't moved, and her lifted his wand and sent a silent stunner at him. The small body flew off the bed at impact, but running around the bed to check, Harry was pleased to see his attack had hit.

He picked up Pettigrew and placed him inside the box, wrapping it in simple brown paper and attaching a letter to the front. With that done he checked the map again- Moody would be proud of his paranoia, but he refused to let anything go wrong- and left the dormitory, heading to the owlery. He had debated using a different owl beside Hedwig, but he hadn't been able to ask her to delivery anything for him yet and didn't want to offend her. Plus, no one knew what his owl looked like outside of Hogwarts- who would notice they were the same? Finding his reasons justified he began looking for Hedwig as he entered the tower. She flew down to meet him almost immediately, and Harry stroked her feathers while tying the package onto her leg.

"Take this to the Ministry of Magic, Aurors Department, alright girl?" Harry asked quietly. "And try not to attract too much attention."

Hedwig hooted in understanding and took off. He watched her go, excitement still running through him as he left the Tower. It was probably his eager disposition that made him not notice the presence that appeared behind him. That is, until a loud raspberry was blown directly in his ear.

"Arg! Bloody hell Peeves!" Harry shouted, stumbling to his side. The poltergeist became visible, grinning madly at Harry's outrage expression. Peeves was one of the most annoying creatures Harry could think existed, interrupting his great day like this. Harry cursed again and tried to walk away.

"Wee Potty doesn't have time for a chat with lil'o Peeves?" The spirit asked as it followed him cackling.

"Not today Peeves," Harry replied icily.

"Not very _nice_ Potty head." Peeves replied wickedly, swooping around him and sending Harry stumbling back to avoid him.

"What are you going to do," Harry asked in annoyed sarcasm, "throw dungbombs at me until I cry? I have to get to class, go bother someone else."

Instead of dungbombs, Peeves pulled out a sack of water balloons from seemingly nowhere. Harry bit back from swearing loudly and whipped out his wand. They stayed like that for a moment, Peeves enjoying the drawn out tension before he finally sent a few of the balloons at Harry, who quickly tossed them to the side with flicks of his wand. He felt foolishly like he was dueling a poltergeist. Peeves tried to alter his tactics, flying around and throwing them at the wizards back, but Harry had dealt with all of these maneuvers in his first life and followed Peeves's moves with perfect deflection. Finally the spirit was out of ammunition and swearing.

Harry grinned and put his wand back in its holster. "Nice chatting with you Peeves, but I really need to go."

With that he stepped forward without looking, putting his foot on the top step of the staircase. The moment the sole of his shoe hit the watery plastic that had been under him, he slipped, and crashed downward head first on the hard stone. Harry felt his body bounce off of multiple steps before he finally came to a stop halfway down, and he bit down on his lip as he felt a stinging pain in his wrist that stood out amongst the throbbing in the rest of his body. Peeves cackled madly from above him before zooming off in an unknown direction. Harry didn't bother listening, instead inspecting his right wrist as it was at an odd angle. He wondered if he'd be able to cast a healing spell with his left hand, having never practiced it before. Healing magic was tricky, and he didn't want to mess up.

Sighing, he decided to got to the infirmary and have Madam Pomfrey look at it. It dawned on him that this would be his first visit to her, and it was sooner than it had been the first time around. He severely hoped he wasn't setting a precedent as he picked himself and moved down the tower, conscious of the bruises now layering his body.

It took a bit longer than usual to get down to the first floor where the hospital wing was, and he noticed his venture with Peeves had taken up enough time for class to have started. Hermione would be angry with him later until he explained, he knew. Finally he went inside the large room filled with beds and looked around for Madame Pomfrey. She was sitting with an older student, looking over her arm which had what looked like a nasty bite on it. Harry figured she had come from Care of Magical Creatures, although he had never thought it to be dangerous before Hagrid started teaching. The nurse looked over at him and seeing him holding his wrist motioned him to a bed.

"I'll be right over dear, I just need to finish this up first."

Harry sat down, looking around the room for what felt like the first time in centuries. Everything was as he remembered it, and he felt himself drifting back into his thoughts about Hedwig and the package she was carrying. He had though it over numerous times before doing it, and he felt it was the best decision he could make. He wouldn't be like Dumbledore, who waited to see how things played out before acting. Sirius had been trapped in Azkaban for ten years and Harry wasn't about to let that happen for any longer. Hopefully he'd still be wanted, even though Sirius wouldn't have had the chance to watch him for a while like before. And by getting rid of Peter he had ensured that Voldemort would need a new way to revive. Or at least a new servant to help him. Harry shook his head- there was nothing he could do about that now. Instead he waited for Madam Pomfrey to finish, something that took longer than he expected. By the time she got to him classes for the day were over.

Muttering about Peeves, Pomfrey pulled the curtains closed and ordered him to take off his shirt so she could inspect for bruises properly. He cringed as he did it but was grateful afterward, seeing some of the large dark bruises that had unconsciously appeared while he was waiting. She poked at them muttering spells before turning to his wrist and fixing it with another wave of her wand. He was grateful when she was done and he was released. The last thing she said to him was, "Take care of yourself, I don't want to see you back here."

Harry ran of with a guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Figuring Hermione would have started on her homework he quickly made his way to the library. After searching for the better part of a half an hour he was forced to admit she wasn't there. Instead he sighed and went to check the common room. As he entered through the portrait he began scanning the room for his friend. The room was only partially full, and as he didn't know any of the students there very well he walked back out. Outside? He supposed it was possible, the weather wasn't that bad. With that Harry made his way back down to the ground floor and walked to the courtyard, checking for his bushy haired friend. She wasn't there either. Harry felt himself getting frustrated, and walked around the castle to scan the lake. Nothing. He hesitated for a moment before fingering the ragged piece of parchment in his pocket. It hurt his pride to think he couldn't tell where his best friend was without resorting to a magical map. The kitchens? They had only been there once and she didn't seem very attracted to the place at the time. Harry struggled with the idea before dismissing it. He hadn't heard her mention anything about unfair elf rights yet, so he felt safe enough that she wouldn't be there convincing them to rally for freedom.

So where was she? She didn't know about the Room of Requirements or Myrtle's bathroom. She wasn't a prefect so she couldn't be using any of their special privilege spots. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice and turned around. Neville was walking with Dean and Seamus, and they were talking about a game of exploding snaps in the common room. He walked over to them, waving for their attention.

"Hey Harry," Neville said, greeting him happily. The other Gryffindors were still sore at him and Ron for losing the points, so while they would allow them to hang out with them there was still tension between them. Harry and Hermione were the only ones who wouldn't send him a glare every once in a while. "Where were you last class? Where's Hermione?"

"Actually I was hoping to ask you guys that. I was in the hospital wing," he answered. Then added, "Peeves. None of you know where Hermione is?"

The trio of Gryffindors glanced at each other. Finally Seamus asked, smirking, "What, she didn't go running to you?"

"Huh?"

Dean shrugged. "We don't know where she is mate, sorry. We figured she had found you and that's why the two of you weren't in class."

Harry paused, he had a very bad feeling in his stomach. "What are you talking about?"

Dean answered again, looking at the other two at his side. "Hermione and Ron got in a row after you left from the Great Hall at lunch. She ran off crying. When neither of you showed up to class we figured she had gone to you since you're always together."

Harry looked at them blankly. "No one stopped her?"

Seamus sneered at him, rolling his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, Potter, no one else in Gryffindor can stand her besides you. At least you keep your mouth shut most of the time, she's just a know-it-all."

Harry watched him for moment, then turned to look at the other two. Neville shifted nervously and said quietly, "I don't think she's that bad..."

Dean shrugged a little, but Seamus just ignored the boy. Harry mentally berated himself. He should have figured something like this would happen. He felt a surge of anger at the Gryffindors standing in front of him but quickly smothered it. If he got in trouble for kicking their arses he wouldn't be able to find Hermione. Instead he turned and left, swearing that Ron would be suffering more than a little humiliation by the end of the year. When he got out of sight of them he pulled out his map and checked it. She was in the girls bathroom, same as last time.

He quickly wiped the map and let out a low growl. Oh, Ron was going to get _pounded_ the next chance he got. Harry made his way inside, uncaring of who he saw. A number of the students moved out of his way in a hurry, looking at the pissed off wizard as he went by. Finally he stopped outside of the girls bathroom and took a deep breath to calm down. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

After a moment a confused looking Hufflepuff third year opened the door. Seeing an angry boy standing outside she raised her eyebrows and asked, "Yes?"

"Is Hermione Granger in there?" Harry asked calmly, as though this was nothing out of the ordinary. "First year, Gryffindor?"

"Give me a moment," the girl responded and ducked back into the bathroom. One thing Harry would always love about Hufflepuffs was that they never had any problem helping out a member of a different house. To them people were people. Harry waited calmly for the girl to return, running a list of pain inducing potions through his mind to use on Ron when he saw him next. He snapped out of his thoughts when the girl reappeared. "She's in here, but she doesn't want to see anyone at the moment."

Harry sighed. "Thanks. I'll just wait for her then." He slumped against the wall and looked around the hallway.

The girl disappeared back inside and after a minute came back out and left. Harry waited for the hall to clear before pulling the map out of his pocket. Hermione was alone in there now. He briefly debated what to do, and glancing around once more, conjured up an 'out-of-order' sign to hang on the bathroom door before he slipped inside.

The bathroom was lit by candles, with a large mirror on the wall above a number of sinks and opposite a row of stalls. Harry looked at end stall, hearing a quiet sobbing coming from inside. He silently locked the door and walked a few feet into the small room.

"Hermione?"

There was a loud squeak and he thought he heard her jump. Hermione's voice was a mixture of anger and terror as she spoke next. "Harry! This is a girls bathroom, you can't be in here!"

"It's fine, I put a sign on the door, people will think it's out of order," Harry said calmly. "Plus I locked it. I don't think anyone's coming in."

"That's not the point!" She said again angrily. "You're still not suppose to be in here! Now get out!"

Harry felt a small stab of pain as he heard her words. He didn't respond immediately, he had never heard her so angry, not at him. They had always gotten along with the exception of a few rare occasions. "I heard the Weasel prat did something to you, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Oh I'm just _fine_!" Hermione laughed shakily. "Bloody brilliant, Harry! Now leave!"

"What happened?" he asked instead, trying to get her to talk to him. He had never actually had her confide in him a lot in the last time line. She had always kept things more to herself, the same way he tried to. He figured it had something to do with Gryffindor courage, not wanting to ask for help. He sunk to the floor against the wall. "I'm not leaving Hermione, you might as well talk to me."

He heard a small noise that sounded like a stifled sob. "I'm not coming out Harry, _you_ might as well _give up_."

Harry stared at the door to her stall in silence for a few minutes. When she didn't come out and continued to cry, more quietly this time, he took out his notebook. It went on like this for quite some time, Hermione being too stubborn to leave her stall and Harry being too stubborn to leave the bathroom. When she finally opened the door she saw Harry sitting against the wall, scrawling something.

"What is that?" She asked, not quite out of her area. Harry looked up, seeing her puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks.

"A list," he answered simply, shrugging. "Or a few lists, I should say."

"Of what?"

Harry debated for a moment. "Come over here and I'll show you."

Hermione let out a snort. "I suppose I'm supposed to talk to you afterward? Play the perfect little princess and let you run off and handle all of my problems?"

"Well, the talking would be nice," Harry answered awkwardly. "And if you want the rest I'll do it, but that's not what I was expecting. I thought you'd want to take care of the prat on your own. Maybe with some help."

Hermione snorted again. After another long moment, Hermione walked over and looked down at his papers. He held them up so she could see better.

_---Pain Inducing Potions---_

_Babbling Beverage_

_Bulbadox Powder_

_Befuddlement Draught_

_Draught of Living Death_

The list went on with various other potions that would cause the receiver a nasty side effect. A number of the potions toward the bottom Hermione didn't recognize, but she assumed they were more of the same. She glanced at the next list.

_---Bad Things About Ronald Bilius Weasley---_

Hermione felt herself give a small hiccupped giggle at the title and went on to read about 'close-minded', 'poor student', and 'complete arse' among other things. The last list caused her to pause.

_---Things to Love About Hermione Jean Granger---_

"Harry?" she asked quietly, slumping down to the floor beside him and pulling the notebook into her lap. She read the list, mouthing a few phrases that she came upon. Harry waited, watching her read through his notes. Finally she gave a watery smile and pushed them back at him. "Thank you, Harry, but if you think I'm going to break down and bare my soul to you, you have another thing coming. Just so you know."

Harry sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. "It was worth a try," he said shrugging. "And now I have a few nice lists that I can look at when I'm having a bad day." He pulled out his wand and muttered a spell, creating a copy of the page. He handed it to her. "We both have one. There."

Hermione brushed her eyes with her sleeve, taking the copy with a small smile. She would have to figure out what spell he had just used later. They sat silently for a few minutes before Harry spoke.

"Those potions, if you want to make one I can give you the recipes."

Hermione gave a soft laugh and shook her head. She finally seemed to be calming down, and she looked up at the friend sitting beside her. "Why did you come here?"

Harry looked over at her in surprise. "Someone said you were upset. You're my friend, I wanted to help."

"He said the only reason you wanted to hang out with me is because you knew I didn't have any other friends and thought you could…get stuff."

Harry tilted his head slightly, trying to figure out what she was saying. "What could I get from you Hermione? The Potter family isn't badly off, I have all the money and items I need. I just want to be your friend."

Hermione's shoulders shook as she silently laughed. "He wasn't talking about that kind of stuff." Seeing that he still wasn't understanding her she smiled and said, "Girl stuff."

It took Harry a long moment in his adolescence clouded mind to realize what she was referring to. Once he did his reaction was far from the maturity he should have had as a twenty-one year old.

"What?! I don't-!" Harry cringed and immediately shot a few feet away from her. "What is that? Why would I-?! I don't want-! What-!"

Hermione burs out laughing, grabbing onto her sides as she watched her friend enter into a panic. Harry watched her, his entire face lit up as red as a Weasley's hair. "Ew! Hermione! You're suppose to be the mature one here. I'm not even going to become interested in anything like that for another two years!"

His comment made Hermione laugh even harder, and she managed to force out, "What, are you on a timer?"

Harry stuttered a few times before finally snapping his mouth shut, sending an embarrassed glare at the girl. It took a large number of minutes before she finally calmed down- the first few times she got close she would look at him and break out into a renewed fit of laughter. They remained sitting on the floor, trying to get over the embarrassed feeling of a few minutes before.

"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione finally said. She wiped her eyes again angrily ignoring the dozens of footsteps of people leaving the Great Hall. "I should have known he was just being a prat, but, some of the things he said were true. You know you're the only one who likes me. Everybody else just sees me as some, some know-it-all!"

Harry leaned over to her, brushing off the feeling he was missing something. "Hermione, listen." She didn't look at him, but he continued anyway. "The only reason they're saying that is because they don't know you the way I do. You're… so much more mature than they are, that's all. None of them can wrap their heads around half the things you can, so they don't really see what you're worth. Believe me, it's a lot. And don't try to dumb yourself down for them, there's nothing wrong with you being brilliant, it makes you so much better. It makes you _you_."

Hermione sniffed, but when she looked up after a moment her eyes were clear. "Thank you Harry."

Harry smiled. The feeling that something was off had gotten stronger, but he ignored it. "Great. Come on, let's go grab something to eat."

She nodded. "Alright, supper must be half over already, I thought I heard people leaving a few minutes ago."

Then it clicked. There was a sound in the distance, something he hadn't been paying attention to before that. Foot steps. Big ones. And just then he began noticing the stench that the creature carried with it. He felt himself pale; how long had they been there for?

"Hermione, do you hear something?"

She looked at him questioningly and listened. There was a soft grunting as well, and the sound of something being dragged. "Honestly," she huffed after a moment. "Those people are impossible, I think they're coming to scare us."

Harry bolted to his feet. "I don't think so Hermione. Come on, we need to go."

"What? Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, rising to her feet and looking at his pale expression with stern worry.

"Let's just go-" Harry said, but just then the smell had become impossibly strong. There was a loud crunching right outside their door, and Harry immediately motioned for Hermione to be silent. By now she had picked up to the fact that there was something wrong and backed up against the wall. The door eased inward slightly, like something had been pushing on it. Hermione cast her terrified eyes on Harry who was watching the door with his wand in his hand.

As a child he had never known quite how dangerous trolls could really be, he had just gone after it blindly to save a friend. Now he realized that their skin was too thick for most spells to get through, and they had enormous amounts of strength. He stepped in front of Hermione, and said quietly, "I'm going to blast the door, hopefully that will surprise it enough to give us an opening. Once it's out of the way, run."

"Harry, what-?" She asked, terror entering her voice.

"Just do it Hermione."

With that he stepped toward the door a few feet. The creature seemed to know that the closest people were behind the wooden barrier, because it pushed on it again, a little more violently. Harry waited for it to let up, knowing he only had this last chance to do what he wanted. The troll did, and Harry heard something be dragged across the ground quickly as it picked up its club to bash to door in. In that split moment he unlocked the door and sent the strongest blast of magic he could conjure straight at its center. The door blew off its hinges, smacking something hard that was standing behind it, sending it stumbling back. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand, thrusting her forward and yelled, "Now!"

She bolted out of the door and let out a shriek, Harry following just behind her. The troll towered over the both of them, and Harry shoved Hermione forward so she would keep running. Hermione sprinted forward but stumbled after a few feet and fell. The troll turned to look at what had hit it, and slowly its eyes wandered over to the two students. Harry looked up at the creature for a moment as he tried to drag Hermione to her feet. It was livid after being hit in the face with a large block of wood and began making its way toward them quickly, swinging its club into the statues and portraits that were near it.

"Hermione, get up," Harry commanded quietly, tugging her arm. "You need to get up."

She sat their, frozen, as she watched the troll come at them. Seeing the troll get a few feet away from them he gave up on getting her to move and threw himself in front of her, spreading his arms wide to protect her from the attack. The troll brought its club down in an arc, sending Harry into the wall as it grunted loudly. Harry felt his body slam into cold stone for the second time that day and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. He vaguely heard Hermione scream his name and the footfalls coming over to him. A shadow fell over him and he quickly summoned the strength to throw himself out of the way before the club was brought crashing down into the spot he had been. He gasped as pain shot through his arm and tried to ignore the blood that was trickling to the floor.

He turned around to face the troll, seeing it turning to eye him as well. It gave out a loud roar and stomped toward him, brandishing its club again. Harry knew he needed it to let go of the club, but he was unsure of how to get it done. Deciding to try his luck, he summoned various pieces of broken stone to send themselves at the creature's eyes and neck, hoping he could get it to lose focus. Indeed, the beast let out a loud howl as some of the stone caused his eyes to bleed, and it began waving its club wildly while stomping around. It was a few feet from Harry, and he cringed whenever it got too close, but couldn't find the strength to move. Suddenly he was struck with an idea, and he sent a cutting hex at the handle of the wood. All at once it broke and fell from where the troll was waving it, clattering to the floor. The troll didn't notice as it was so intent on the stone attacking its face. Harry decided to pull a leaf out of Ron's book, and he used the simply hovering charm to lift the club from its position and smack the troll harshly with it over its skull. The creature stopped moving and went crashing to the floor. Unfortunately, so did its club, which chose to land itself straight on Harry.

Harry felt the heavy wood crash on himself and his vision was cast into darkness.

Hermione screamed when she saw the club fall onto Harry, and it was only after she knew the troll wasn't moving that she was able to drag herself over to her friend. He was bleeding badly, and she gasped and began shaking when she saw the glass from his eyewear had broken and stabbed into his eyes. She hugged him and whispered his name quietly, along with the phrase 'please', 'be okay', and 'I'm sorry' repeatedly. She heard running footsteps behind her and a startled cry when whoever it was saw them.

Finally a shaky hand grabbed her shoulder and dragged her away from Harry as another person knelt beside him.

"Why on earth are the two of you here?" McGonagall asked tightly, glaring down at the girl she was holding. Hermione was shaking and she seemed a step away from going into complete shock. The Professor turned toward the portraits who were watching and whispering, having been the ones to report the incident to the teachers. "Go get Poppy, we need her here immediately." She looked back at the girl in her arms. "Why on earth weren't you two in your dormitory?"

Hermione was staring at Harry's body in horror as Quirrell inspected his injuries. Snape was bent over the troll, viewing the damage. She couldn't wrap her mind around it, her best friend- her only friend- laying there. The fact that a teacher was demanding her attention, the fact that she might be expelled for any number of unknown reasons, the fact that it could've been her laying there, if he had left- none of it seemed to penetrate her tremors as she heard the soft footfalls of somebody running down the hall. Finally, as the teacher asked once more, she croaked, "He came for me."

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and put this story on their alerts! It means a lot, thank you!

If the last chapter was nothing but fluff, this is where all the plot went. And I know there was a slight mention of Harry x Ginny early on, but don't worry, that's only the case in the flashbacks where things from the books are still in effect. This is purely a Harry/Hermione fic.

Something else I want to point out about this chapter is the troll. I know in a lot of fics that I've read, authors seem to make the troll seem really weak because a group of eleven year olds could beat it in the first book, but I always figured trolls were suppose to be strong and that they just got lucky. I figured that it would be rather believable to say Harry might end up hurt after fighting it if things had gone differently. Note though, that just because he was injured isn't suppose to make him any weaker or anything. With that said, hope you enjoyed reading it.

Please review! ^^


	5. Results

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

Rating: T

Pairings: Harry x Hermione

Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

* * *

Chapter Five. Results

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Harry blinked, opening his eyes before swiftly closing them again to avoid the burning pain being emitted from the lights above him. He stifled a groan as he felt his body ache in a dull pain. He remembered the troll, and cringed as he realized he had been thrown into the wall pretty harshly and was probably suffering from various broken bones. He opened his eyes again slowly, squinting until he adjusted to the sudden brightness. Once he was able to gain some of his bearings he struggled to sit up.

"Oh no you don't Mister Potter!"

A pair of hand pushed themselves against his shoulders and sent him back into the mattress. Harry looked up in annoyance as Madam Pomfrey hovered above him. "You're awake. I'll alert Professor McGonagall."

"How long have I been out?" Harry asked, hoping desperately it hadn't been that long. The first Quidditch game wasn't far off, and Wood would be mental if he had missed his first game.

Madame Pomfrey was pulling a few bottles out of the cabinet, no doubt for him. "Two days. Miss Granger has been extremely worried about you. Now take these."

Harry swallowed the potions he was being handed, uncaring of what they were. He had learned not to question the mediwitch. She nodded as she saw him finish the potions and moved away to her office to call McGonagall. Harry waited a moment and sat up, checking to make sure she wouldn't come bustling back to force him to lay down. He glanced outside and noticed it was afternoon, and felt his stomach lurch in hunger. After a moment Madam Pomfrey came back and frowned at him. He caught her expression and flopped back onto the mattress, sighing. She nodded and looked away.

After a few minutes she had began checking him thoroughly for any remaining injuries, telling him that his ribs could be sore for a while, and pointing out his eyes. It took a moment for him to notice what she was talking about.

"Wait- where are my glasses?" Harry asked bewildered.

"You won't be needing them any more," the witch answered, leaning forward and shining her wand light into his pupils. "The wounds were too much to heal without fixing your entire eyes. Your vision is 20/20, do try to keep it that way."

Harry sat, dumbstruck. He wasn't even sure what to do with this information, he had never considered getting rid of his glasses before. Thinking back on it now, he figured this might prove useful- his glasses had gotten in his way multiple times, but he had never thought about _doing_ anything about them. Suddenly the door to the hospital wing opened, and he turned to see his Head of House step inside. Harry quickly looked away.

"Poppy, I assume Mister Potter has gotten better?" McGonagall asked as she walked over stiffly. Harry tried not to imagine how much trouble he was in.

"He's as best I can make him," the nurse replied. "His ribs will be sore for a while, you might want to keep him off of a broom for a little while."

"What?!" Harry exclaimed, pushing himself up before noticing what he was doing. "I can't- my first match is coming up!"

"Mister Potter!" McGonagall said sternly, glaring down at him. Harry tried to look apologetic.

"I'm sorry Professor, but surely it's not so bad that I can't play? It's my first match," he looked up at her, then added, "Against the Slytherins, and they're the cup holders right now, aren't they? We'd be way behind if we don't beat them."

"We'll see Potter," McGonagall said. "Miss Granger told us what happened. First I would like to express the fact that male students are not allowed in female bathrooms, despite whatever reason they may have. Aside from that, we were came to the conclusion that the two of you did the only thing you could have done in the situation and neither of you will receive any punishment."

Harry sighed. He figured they wouldn't- they certainly hadn't earned any punishments- but it was nice to hear it. He looked up, "Madam Pomfrey said Hermione was worried. That means she's okay, right?"

McGonagall nodded. "As far as injuries go Miss Granger was perfectly fine. She was put under stress from the event however."

He nodded. "Can I go now?"

"Absolutely not Mister Potter!" It was Madam Pomfrey who said this. "I'm not done checking you over. And I think it's best if he stays here another night."

"What?" Harry looked devastated. "I'm fine, really. I need to get back to class, and Quidditch practice, and tell Hermione I'm fine. I can't stay here. Please? I'll take it easy, I promise."

After much begging and a series of promises to the mediwitch about not overexerting himself and going back to the hospital wing the moment anything felt wrong, Harry was sprinting down the hall, ignoring the soreness he felt from the muscles on his body. Once he had found an empty classroom he went inside and pulled out his map. Classes were still in session, and he found Hermione's dot inside one of the greenhouses. Checking the time he began walking down, knowing he could catch the students as they were leaving when classes finished for the day. The day was cold, and Harry pulled his thin cloak around him tighter. He hadn't bothered going up to the dormitory to grab his winter cloak, and felt himself regretting it.

Suddenly he heard the chatter of students and knew that the class had been released for the day. Inspiration seizing him, he looked up and scanned the castle windows for anyone who was watching. There was no one, and Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it around his shoulders just before the greenhouse students turned the corner to see him. He sidestepped the mass of students, looking for a bushy head of brown hair. Harry sent a glare at the passing red head, deciding to wait until later to have a talk with him. The word 'talk' being used lightly. Finally he saw Hermione trailing along behind the rest of the students with her head down and went over to her quietly. After positioning himself behind his friend he quickly scanned the students again. Finding himself free of anyone's gaze he pulled off his cloak and shoved it into his pocket.

"Hey Hermione."

The girl jumped and spun around. "Harry!"

He grinned at her. She looked ready to throw herself at him and he noticed her eyes become watery. "When were you released? I've been going up there to see you."

"Just a few minutes ago actually," Harry said. "I figured I'd come down since class was letting out. Want to go back inside? I didn't bother grabbing a thicker cloak and it's kind of cold…"

Hermione's eyes widened and she nodded vigorously. She seemed half ready to grab his arm and drag him up to the castle, but held herself back. She was staring at him worriedly and kept making small, incomplete movements toward him.

Harry frowned. "Has Ron still been being a prat to you? I can hex him if you want. Wood will be mad if I get kicked from Quidditch, but I'm sure he'll get over it."

Hermione shook her head. "No, no. I'm fine Harry, nobody's said much to me." His frowned deepened. Then she stopped walking and added quietly. "Besides, I already hexed him after Potions yesterday." He turned to stare at her, and she went on in a bossy sort of voice. "He was being very rude to you, you know, saying these horrible things about fighting the troll. I told him to mind his manners and he told me to do something inappropriate, and I hexed him."

Harry felt a grin spreading across his face. "Hermione, that's brilliant!"

"Yes, well, I-I thought he deserved it!" she said. Hermione turned to look at him. He saw clearly that there were tears in her eyes. "It, wasn't _your_ fault there was a troll there, or that I f-froze up and let you get hurt." Suddenly she sniffed. Harry froze and watched her, dreading what he knew was coming. They were still standing outside the castle a distance from the doors with the forest to their backs. Harry doubted he'd find some distraction to avoid the scenario and watched as the first tear slid down her cheek. "Harry, I'm sorry. If I hadn't frozen like that- you were only hurt because you were trying to protect me and you…"

"Hermione," he said, adjusting himself so he was standing in front of her. "It's not your fault. I _chose_ to do that. And I don't regret it."

She sniffed, and Harry looked around for something to cheer her up. Spotting something over her shoulder, on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he stopped. It was looking right at him, and Harry thought he saw a small unevenness of skin on its side. He stood there for a long moment simply staring at it, hearing another sniff coming from the girl in front of him. It was watching the both of them, but it didn't seem to be afraid or upset. It was almost asking for him if they wanted to go over.

"Hermione," he breathed, knowing exactly what to do. He took her by the hand. "Close you eyes for a minute, okay? And come with me."

"Huh?" she asked, looking at him with bloodshot eyes.

"Just trust me."

She nodded slowly and closed her eyes, Harry began pulling her toward the forest, forgetting about the cold around them and snow on the ground. As they got closer the creature came out to meet them and it was only a minute before he was standing in front of the beautiful white horse like animal. He lifted his hand and- receiving permission- stroked its long muzzle. After a moment he pulled back and positioned Hermione to stand in front of him and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Open your eyes, and please don't make any loud sounds."

Hermione frowned a little and looked in front of her. She gasped. The unicorn leaned forward to sniff her. "Oh…Harry."

"Go on," he said smiling, "She won't hurt you."

Hermione looked over her shoulder at him, and hesitantly held out her hand to pet the creature. She watched in amazement as it let her stroke its mane and ran her hand through its soft hair. "She's beautiful."

"Isn't she?" Harry said, reaching forward with one hand to stroke her with Hermione. "There are a few of them that live in the Forbidden Forest."

Hermione continued watching in amazement. Suddenly there was a crunch of snow to their side and the three looked over toward the sound. Professors Sprout and Hagrid had come around the side of the castle together talking, and when they saw the two students they halted. The unicorn gave a small neigh and sprinted off, making Hermione squeak and push herself back into Harry. He quickly whispered a few words softly to her, making sure she hadn't been scared by its sudden departure. Then the two of them looked over at the teachers, who were glancing between where the unicorn had disappeared into the forest and the two Gryffindors standing out in the snow.

"Harry!" Hagrid finally exclaimed. "When'd ye get outta the hospital wing?"

"Hello Hagrid," Harry replied, letting go of Hermione's shoulder and stepping back. "Just about twenty minutes ago actually." He looked at the girl in front of him and decided to avoid awkward questions. "We were actually going to head back inside. It's kind of cold, and I forgot my cloak."

He smiled at them and the two students quickly made their way inside. Hermione had come to pick up on the 'we need to get out of here or get in trouble' cues that he gave off and she scurried away with him. They headed inside and Hermione felt herself giggle.

"Harry, what was wrong with petting a unicorn?" she asked after a moment. Harry shrugged.

"They don't like being near people much, it's rare for them to just let you touch them. They especially dislike boys."

"Oh."

They kept walking, heading to the library so Hermione could help him catch up on the work he'd missed. It wasn't until supper that everyone else realized he was back, and while there was a lot of whispering no one tried to speak to them- with the exception of Wood coming over to make sure Harry would play in the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match that Saturday. Harry and Hermione ignored the other students and went on talking about the most recent classes as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened.

That Saturday came quickly, with the upcoming Quidditch game dominating everybody's conversations. Hermione still wasn't showing much interest in the sport itself, but she was giving him support for his position. If she found it odd when he asked her to sit near where the teachers would be sitting she didn't show it, and that morning left to the stands while he went down to the locker room. Wood gave the team their normal pep talk, and they went onto the field with a determined air about them. It seemed as if the entire school had showed up to watch, and Harry scanned the seats for his bushy haired friend, making sure she had placed herself where he'd asked. He heard Fred give a small cough and exchanged glances with his twin. Harry frowned. They had been teasing him about _something_ every practice, but he had yet to figure out what, and it was annoying him to no end.

Finally Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the two teams shot into the air. The game followed much of the same events as the one in the first time line, but Harry was able to mutter the appropriate counter curse the moment he felt Quirrell begin trying to send him off the broom. While it kept one part of his mind distracted with his mental spell casting the rest of his body was on auto drive, searching for the glint of gold that finally told him where the Snitch would be. He made the dive and pulled up with the small ball held tightly in his hand, avoiding the entire 'I'm going to eat it before catching it' scenario of the time before. The game ended with Gryffindor a hundred and twenty points ahead of Slytherin, and right after the game Harry and Hermione went down to Hagrid's hut for a visit.

Hagrid had been especially favorable toward them after seeing the two of them with the unicorn. He had asked about it the next time they saw each other, and Harry had simply shrugged and told him he saw it by the forest and felt like cheering up Hermione by letting her see it. Hagrid had accepted the story and they went on to discuss other topics. After they left Harry wondered how he was suppose to bring up the subject of Fluffy and the Philosopher's Stone considering they missed their encounter with the Cerberus earlier in the year. Suddenly an idea struck him and he knew he had to track down Neville. It was possible he and Ron had run into themselves during their night time adventure the weeks previously.

Harry and Hermione were sitting in the common room working on their school work when Neville entered by himself later that afternoon. Harry waved him over.

"Hello Harry," Neville greeted as he walked over to them. "That was a great game earlier, you were really good up there." The round faced boy was still nervous speaking to them after running into Harry on Halloween. He hadn't had any friends before that, and it had seemed as if he lost the only two people who might even consider themselves close to him. So when Harry actually acknowledged his existence it was always with a nervous smile that Neville interacted with them.

"Hey Neville. I was wondering something," Harry said, looking around to make sure no one else beside Hermione was listening. "You remember that night you and Ron left Gryffindor Tower, right? Did either of you go near the forbidden corridor? You were on the third floor, right?"

Neville paled dramatically. "W-what? N-no! We didn't d-do anything near the forbidden corridor! Sorry you guys, but I have homework!" He turned as though he was about to flee. Hermione was looking at him like he was crazy but Harry felt a little satisfaction. There was only one reason he'd be so worried.

"Did you see a Cerberus?"

The boy froze. "A C-Cerberus?"

"Yeah, a three headed dog. He might not've been there, I was just curious," Harry said, watching his reaction. Neville gulped and looked over his shoulder at Harry.

"How'd you know about that?"

Harry smiled. "So you did go into the corridor."

"Y-yes, but not on purpose!" Neville said. He seemed upset. "We would've gotten into trouble with Filch if we didn't hide. We ran into the door, managed to unlock it after a few tries and went it. T-there was a giant dog inside, and it seemed really mad so we ran straight back out. P-Professor McGonagall said we weren't suppose to tell anyone about it."

He looked at Harry's satisfied face and flushed. "How do you know about that?"

"Oh," Harry replied, shrugging. "I was up on the third floor earlier and heard some growling. Judging from the sound I figured that's what it was. I just wanted to know if I was right, and I remembered you and Ron had been around there before. Thanks."

Neville said something about his homework and left, leaving Harry to do a mental jig inside of his head. Now he had the information to ask Hagrid about it, and they could start their 'search' for information on Nicholas Flamel. It would go much faster this time since Harry would remember where he saw it and they wouldn't waste so much time looking through useless books. He looked over at Hermione, who was frowning at him.

"When did you hear this?"

"Earlier this week," Harry said shrugging. She narrowed his eyes at him.

"You just have heard it recently to just be asking about it now."

Harry paused at the tone of her voice, knowing he had said something wrong. He shuffled his feet against the carpet and tried to think about what corner he was backing himself into. When did he hear it? Before the troll? Impossible, that was the end of last week. During the two days he was unconscious in the hospital wing? Nope. The two days after the hospital wing when Hermione was practically glued to him? Not likely. That day, during the Quidditch game or tea with Hagrid? Harry bit his lip. Then he had the answer. "Actually, it was Halloween. When I was looking for you. I guess I forgot about it with everything going on afterward, but I remembered it earlier and thought I'd ask."

Hermione stared at him for another moment before nodding her head slowly. Harry hated lying to her, but it was too soon to be shoving everything he knew at her. Suddenly a shadow fell over them and they turned to look up. It was Ron.

"Can we help you with something?" Harry asked coolly. He hadn't forgiven the redhead for what he'd said to Hermione yet, and the boy hadn't bothered speaking to either of them. In fact, Harry was still looking for an opportunity to get even with the bastard.

Ron scowled at him. "I'm asking everyone in our dormitory. Have you seen Scabbers? He's been missing for a while and hasn't shown up when I looked for him."

Harry shook his head and Ron left, the dark haired boy glaring after him. It brought back to mind the fact that he was still waiting for something to happen regarding that issue. He knew any effect wouldn't be immediate, but he was beginning to get edgy. Pushing the issue to the side the two of them went back to work, half of Harry's mind focusing on the redhead. Despite whatever feelings he had toward the boy, he wasn't the type of person to just up and torture somebody- Ron's punishment needed to be realistic. That's when he remembered the Weasley's stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas.

The weeks went by painstaking slowly for Harry, and eventually it was the beginning of December. There was snow covering the ground, and Harry had dragged Hermione down to Hagrid's again, this time for them to ask about Fluffy. Hagrid was more than surprised when he heard they knew about it, and accidentally gave them the information with a little pushing from Harry. He was able to get Hermione's interest by saying he recalled Flamel was the maker of the Philosopher's Stone, and they immediately began questioning what Fluffy was there for. He didn't want to give away all the information, or make Hermione feel uninvolved. In the original timeline it had been her who discovered the Stone, and he wanted her to feel a bit of her accomplishment, even if that made things go a little slower.

It was on a cold Saturday morning when Harry and Hermione were sitting in the common room that the next interesting thing happened. Most of the Gryffindors had decided to spend the day inside and out of the cold, and the room was filled with students doing various activities. Harry and Hermione had both finished their homework and were reading silently, sharing the same couch next to the fire when the portrait hole opened and the common room went silent. Hermione was the first one to glance up, and she took stopped to take an interest in whoever had entered. Harry continued reading, figuring someone would say something if it was important.

"Mister Potter, if you would come with me." Harry looked around and saw his Head of House standing by the portrait hole, watching him. A number of the Gryffindors turned to look at him as well, and he glanced at Hermione before getting up and putting his book down on the couch where he had been sitting. He gave a half hearted wave toward his friend and followed the professor out.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Harry casting her curiously glances. Finally she spoke. "We're going to Professor Dumbledore's office. He will explain what this is about there."

Harry felt something heavy drop into his stomach. What was this about? Did he do something to alter the time line? Had the hat ratted on him? He trusted that stupid hat! He looked at the professor worriedly, hoping she would say more, but she kept her silence. Finally they stopped outside of two gargoyle statues, and she said, "Whistle pops."

The stones quickly moved out of the way, and the two of them stepped onto a rotating staircase that brought them to the door to the Headmaster's room. Without knocking she walked inside. Harry followed slowly, looking around. Fawkes was sitting on his stand like normal, looking a bit older than Harry had ever remembered seeing him, but quickly brushed it aside since he knew the phoenix would burn next year. The sorting hat was sitting on its stool in the corner, and there were various whirling instruments scattered around the office. Finally he looked at the people present, noticing Professor McGonagall had stopped behind an empty chair and was watching him. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, surveying the young wizards carefully, as though he was handling a very delicate situation. Seeing the last person in the room Harry suddenly knew he was. A tall, pale man with shoulder length black hair was watching him intently, sitting in an armchair across from the Headmasters desk.

He looked away when he saw him, making sure his slightly confused mask was still in place. Sirius. Why hadn't _The Prophet_ said anything? He'd been reading it just for that purpose. Damn it! Leave it to the Ministry not to even put a footnote into the pages apologizing for ten years of wrongful imprisonment. He approached the desk, and the Headmaster motioned his head toward the empty armchair in front of McGonagall. Harry sat, and waited.

"Harry, may I offer you a lemon drop?" Dumbledore began. Harry felt his eyes widen slightly- his godfather was sitting next to him for the first time in ten years and the only thing the old man thought to offer was a lemon drop?- and shook his head with a small 'no thank you sir'. Dumbledore nodded to himself and continued. "I suppose you are wondering why you are here?"

Harry glanced at Sirius- he couldn't help it, and he noticed the older man was still staring at him- before looking back at the professor and saying, "Yes, sir."

"I'm afraid there is a lot I need to explain before you'll understand what I'm saying. I'm under the impression nobody has ever told you this before," Dumbledore said, watching the boy across his desk. "About two weeks ago the Ministry released a rather startling discovery. It involves your parents deaths, Harry." There was a small pause, where Dumbledore seemed to debate how to continue. "Before you were born your parents were a part of a resistance group who fought against Voldemort during the war. It became apparent at one point after you were born that Voldemort was targeting your family, and the three of you, your father, mother, and yourself, went into hiding. You were all protected by the Fidelius Charm, which is complex magic that will conceal a secret inside of a single living soul- the Secret-Keeper. For your parents the secret was the location for your home, and the Secret-Keeper was believed to have been Sirius Black. As long as the Secret-Keeper refused to reveal information, Voldemort had no chance of finding you. When Voldemort attacked your home eleven years ago on Halloween it became apparent that they had been betrayed, and their Secret-Keeper was sent to Azkaban upon capture."

"Without a trail," Sirius broke in in a bitter voice, taking his eyes off of Harry for the first time to glare at the Headmaster. Dumbledore sighed.

"Yes, without a trail." He rubbed the bridge of his nose warily and looked at Harry to see how he was taking it. Harry's faced remained blank as he listened, a tint of surprise appearing at points. It was more at the fact that Dumbledore was telling him this than anything else, but he supposed the man had no choice. The headmaster continued, "As I have said, two weeks ago the Ministry of Magic made a very surprising announcement. They revealed that they had caught Peter Pettigrew, a man the supposed Secret-Keeper had reportedly killed, and that he has admitted under Veritaserum, which is a very potent truth potion, that he had in fact been the Secret-Keeper, and that he had betrayed the Potters and framed Sirius Black for their deaths, as well as the deaths of thirteen Muggles."

"Harry, if I may introduce you to your godfather, Sirius Black." Dumbledore motioned toward the man sitting next to him, and Harry openly looked at him for the first time. Sirius had swerved his head back to see his godchild and the room went silent.

Harry felt his heart skip. He had prepared for getting this done- but now that Sirius was free what was he supposed to _do_? He loved his godfather, but how was he suppose to act around a man he looked up to as a mix of a brother and father when the man had no idea who he really was? He bit his lip, cursing the silent room. What exactly were they waiting for? "Godfather? Why wasn't I told this before?"

Dumbledore bowed his head. "I left the basic information of what had happened to you in a letter to your aunt and uncle when you were first given to them. I'm afraid I was not very specific in the details, so it was quite possible your guardians hadn't known enough to tell you."

There was another small moment of silence and Dumbledore stood up. "Minerva, perhaps it would be best to give them some time." He looked at the two sitting in the chairs and addressed them. "There are some matters to take care of around the school that I can spend my time on now, I will be back in a short while. Feel free to ask one of the portraits to come and find either myself or Minerva if you need anything."

With that the two teachers left the room and it was cast back into silence. Suddenly neither of them were looking at each other, both choosing to glance around the room in feigned interest. After a minute where nothing was said Harry finally had enough and figured he would break the silence wit the only safe topic he could think of.

"So you knew my-"

"I heard you were good at-"

Silence. The two of them stopped glancing around the room and looked at each other again. Harry bit down on his lip, trying to hide a grin. "I'm sorry, you were…saying?"

Sirius seemed to be caught between emotions and finally replied. "You live with your relatives. Is it nice there?"

Harry noticed it wasn't what he had been saying before but let it go. He thought for a moment before answering. "It's…not horrible I guess. Just kind of a 'live and let live' situation now."

Sirius frowned. "Live and let live?"

"Well, yes." Harry tried to think of a way to describe what had happened between him and the Dursleys after his tenth birthday. "We…don't get along very well, so it's mostly just ignoring each other."

"Why don't you get along?" Sirius asked. There was something in his voice that made Harry believe he wasn't surprised by the situation.

Harry shrugged. He didn't want to be talking about this, but he didn't want to block Sirius out or he might not want him later. "It's just that…well…" He paused, trying to phrase it as best he could without making it seem like he was complaining. "I don't think my aunt ever got along with my mother. She speaks poorly about her when she does and I think it's kind of carried over to me. I don't exactly blame them, I _was_ just kind of dropped on their doorstep, so we just leave each other alone."

Sirius was watching him again, but this time there was a type of anger in his eyes. Harry felt himself shrink back slightly. Sirius wasn't mad at him, he was angry at the Dursleys, but Harry still didn't like it when Sirius was upset. "Harry," he said, trying to make his voice seem calm. "you're mother was one of the brightest witches of our age. There was nothing to speak 'poorly' about her for. She was a great woman and great with spell work. From what I hear you take after her a lot."

Harry perked up. "You knew my parents well then?"

"I wouldn't have been made your godfather if I didn't." Sirius said, a shadow of a smile on his face. "James was my best friend since our first year at Hogwarts. It was the four of us, James, Remus, _Peter,_" there was venom added as he said that name, "and myself. We did everything together. I was the best man at your parent's wedding- and made your godfather when you were born."

Harry watched him intently. Even if he had heard all this before, there was still something about listening to Sirius or Remus talking about his parents that just made him stop. Sirius noticed, and kept speaking, looking off into the distance while remembering some of the things he knew. They didn't notice the time pass until footsteps were heard outside the door and the Headmaster stepped back inside of his office. Harry had adjusted his position so he was sitting Indian style on his chair, and Sirius had ditched the chair altogether to sit on the headmaster's desk. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

When they noticed him they stop talking, and Dumbledore bowed his head toward them apologetically. "It is time for supper, and afterward I believe Harry has Quidditch practice. If you wish, we can arrange another time for the two of you to see each other, and perhaps I can have someplace more appropriate set up for you aside from my office."

Sirius seemed irritated that his time had been interrupted, but he didn't argue, instead looking down at Harry. "Would you like to? I know this is kind of a big thing for you, if you don't want to, that's fine."

Harry nodded, smiling at him. "I would, if that's alright."

Sirius smiled back and nodded his head. The Headmaster said they would arrange something and Harry was sent on his way.

_"Hey Sirius, what is this?" A fifteen year old Harry walked into his godfather's sitting room, looking around at the chair he knew Sirius would be sitting at. The older man swerved his head around to view what Harry was asking about, and frowned when he saw a book in the boy's hand. Grimmauld Place was quiet aside from the crackling of the fire lighting up the room and small noises from upstairs that could be any type of infesting creature. The Weasley's weren't there at the moment, having returned to their home for Christmas. Molly had wanted to take Harry with them, but he had politely declined, deciding to spend needed time with his godfather. Hermione had stayed with her own parents, and Harry realized that it was the first time since attending Hogwarts he wasn't with one of his friends for the holidays. _

_Sirius motioned for Harry to take a seat on the chair beside him, and held his hand out for the book. "Where did you find this?"_

_"It was upstairs in the drawing room," Harry admitted, giving his godfather the worn tome. He sat down, glancing at the dwindling fire and bottle of firewhisky on the table in front of them. When he looked back up he saw Sirius frowning at him, obviously wondering what had possessed his godson to go digging through items of dubious intentions scattered about his house, and he shrugged sheepishly. "I was just looking around, I wasn't really touching anything Mrs. Weasley hasn't deemed 'safe' yet."_

_"Aside from the book," Sirius stated sarcastically. Harry shrugged again and looked at him questioningly, waiting for a response to his last question. Shaking his head with a smirk on his face, Sirius turned the book over in his hand and examined it. "This, is a book my parents bought from an auction when I was still a child. I remember them getting it, it was the jewel of their collection for a while." He frowned. "You said you found this is the drawing room? That's not right. Mother always kept it in her bedroom."_

_"Maybe Kreacher moved it," Harry suggested. _

_Sirius shook his head slowly. "Maybe…but my mother was very specific on keeping it in her room. I doubt Kreacher would have the spine to break one of my mother's strict orders like that. He would probably die of shock at what he'd done."_

_There was a brief moment of silence before Harry asked, "So what is it? I tried looking inside, all of the ink kept moving. I couldn't read anything."_

_"Yes, it's supposed to do that," the older man said, flipping the book open absentmindedly. "This is a journal of a wizard by the name of Wirewood. Complete basket case, but everybody loved him. He had a few great ideas back in his day, in fact, he's the person who invented the first, rough version of Time-Turners. Experts have improved the models since, but it was his theory that got the work off the ground. He was so paranoid that someone would try to steal his work that everything he wrote was done with enchanted quills and ink. Once something was put onto the page, the ink would immediately begin shifting position so everything just looked like moving blobs and lines. Only Wirewood knew the spell to change it back to its original form, and he went and got himself blown up in an experiment. My family thought it would be brilliant if they bought it and someone was able to figure out what he wrote. Never happened."_

_"So it's not dark or anything?" Harry asked curiously. Sirius frowned, gazing at the book for a long moment, as though thinking about something important. _

_"Harry, did you know your dad and I used to get into arguments all the time when we were younger, always about the same thing? Not a serious argument mind you, but more of a debate to see who could out maneuver the other and prove their point better." Harry shook his head, staring at the man next to him. He had never heard anything about Sirius and James fighting over anything, although he guessed they must have at points. Sirius nodded, still looking at the book in his hand without interest. "Yeah, sometimes we could even get Moony or Wormtail involved. Remus switched sides a lot, but Peter- ironically enough, the bastard- always agreed with James. I don't think his mind was big enough to fathom an issue so complex, so he just took the easy way out. We used to fight about the meaning behind light and dark."_

_Harry felt his eyes widen, and waited for Sirius to explain further. Without bothering to look at his godson, he did. "Maybe this is why people were so ready to believe I was the traitor in the Order, I don't know. James firmly believed that there was a definite line between right and wrong. I disagreed. I still do, actually. You see, the world isn't made out of light and dark, Harry. There's a lot of middle ground. When Wirewood first made time spells, he was looking to create something great, something revolutionary. Then he found he could sell it for profit. When Time-Turners first came out, they were used for a lot of robberies and murders because he would sell the devices to whoever wanted it, and most of those people were criminals. Finally, the Ministry of the time stepped in and took control of the situation. If I told you, you had used a device of greed, thieves and murderers to save me two years ago, what would you have to say about that? That it was dark? I don't think so."_

_Harry sat silently, trying to think of what to say. He didn't believe there had been anything wrong with saving Sirius from the dementors in his third year, but he wasn't sure what to think about Time-Turners being evil. Of course, from what Sirius was saying, they weren't. _

_"Harry, I want you to understand this." Sirius turned to face his godchild, meeting his eye for the first time since talking. "You're caught up in the middle of a war built off of ideals. Everyone is saying Voldemort's dark and Dumbledore's light, but that's not really the case. There isn't any light or dark in a war, everything gets messed up and whatever lines that might be used in peacetime are ignored or erased. Every action made has a shadow, a smudge. Someone, somewhere, is hurt by it. Everyone tells you to look on the bright side of things and to think of what's going right, but sometimes it's okay to have some doubts. Try looking at things from someone else's perspective for a while Harry, you'll see what I mean." Sirius paused, and looked back down at the book in his hands. Finally he shook his head and turned to Harry. "Come on, let's have some fun. Have you ever tried firewhisky?"_

_

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_

Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who reviewed, favorited, and put this story on their alerts! It means a lot.

This chapter seems to have taken longer than normal to post, sorry. I'm kind of sick at the moment, and didn't feel like dealing with my computer. But here you go. ^^ I admit, this chapter was a little hard to write, and I think it might show in some places. Sorry about that.

And something in the last chapter someone pointed out that bothered me. (Not that someone pointed it out, that I had made the mistake.) Harry did put a spell on the container holding Peter to prevent him from escaping- it was done before he actually caught Peter though, so I forgot to add it into the scene. It's actually stated later in the story, but I figured that I should've mentioned it during the last chapter. Sorry, it's missing small details like that that really bug me. The final thing I want to say is about the glasses. I didn't make him lose them just so he 'looks cooler' or anything. I think Harry's fine the way he looks. I mean, I can read stories that change his appearance, they don't bother me, but I didn't see a reason to do anything like that here. Losing the glasses is actually important later. And that's all I'm saying about that.

Please review! ^^


	6. Christmas Surprises

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

Rating: T

Pairings: Harry x Hermione

Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

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Chapter Six. Christmas Surprises

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The castle was beginning to feel more festive, with Christmas just around the corner. It was the middle of December, and McGonagall had already taken everybody's name who was staying for the holidays. Hermione was going home to see her parents, but Harry had signed up to stay. He was half hoping he would be able to see Sirius again over the break. As soon as he had left the Headmaster's office he had grabbed Hermione from the Great Hall and told her everything that had happened. She had gone to the library and looked up all the old newspaper articles about the event, and it had replaced their spot of interest from the Philosopher's Stone. Since then Harry had received a letter from Sirius, and had replied enthusiastically, but nothing else had happened. _The Prophet_ had released an article about his false imprisonment and had made scathing comments about the Ministry's policies at the same time as an official apology went out to Sirius. It caused a large amount of talk, and multiple students had pointed out Harry with renewed interest since he had been mentioned in the paper.

It was on a cold morning that Harry and Hermione made their way down to the Great Hall for a late breakfast two days before break. Many of the students were shivering and bundled up in thick cloaks and scarves, but Harry had taken to casting heating charms on the two of them before going anywhere so they remained unaffected. They saw Hagrid on the way down bringing in trees for the Christmas feast.

"Hagrid!" Harry called, waving his hand at the half-giant. The groundskeeper looked over the tree branches and smiled at the two of them as they approached together. "What's this? Need help?"

"Nah, they're just trees for the Great Hall," he replied. "Thanks though."

"They're rather big, aren't they?" Hermione asked as they walked beside him into the dining area.

"Tha' they are," Hagrid chuckled, motioning his head to the trees already inside the hall. There were twelve trees lining the halls, decorated with candles and icicles, as holly and mistletoe was hung up along the ceiling and walls. Hagrid placed the tree in the corner and looked down at the two students. "How many days left 'til yer holidays?"

"One more," Hermione said, watching as Professor Flitwick began decorating the next tree. Hagrid nodded and they split ways, the two students sitting down and pulling food toward them.

"Harry," Hermione asked after a moment. "Do you think you'll spend time with Sirius over break?"

Harry chewed his food thoughtfully before answering, "I don't know. I hope so."

She opened her mouth to say something else but stopped, looking at the doorway. Harry turned to look. Ron and Malfoy- with Crabbe and Goyle behind him- were standing outside exchanging taunts. Or, Malfoy was taunting; Ron was getting ready to punch him. Just as Ron lunged forward a shadow appeared beside them, telling the redhead off. Harry smiled grimly. He had been avoiding all unnecessary contact with the Slytherin's Head of House, and it seemed like Ron was getting the short end of the stick in this lifetime. He still hadn't forgiven him for making Hermione cry, however, so his sympathy was limited. It was then that Ron walked into the Great Hall and both Harry and Hermione swerved their heads away, trying not to look like they had been watching.

Something about their faces must have shown, because Ron scowled at them as he went by. Harry stifled a snigger and Hermione elbowed him in the ribs, sending a 'it's not funny' glare at him. Harry grinned apologetically and they went back to eating his food.

The next day they spent their morning in the library completing their homework until Harry dragged her outside. He then proceeded to start a snowball fight with her, making her shriek at the first unsuspecting ball of snow and start fling back ammunition with a fury. It wasn't until two large piles of snow dropped on them, courtesy of the Weasley twins, that they called it a fight and walked into the Great Hall with the redheads, learning that the Weasleys planned on staying for the winter break as well.

"Mum and Dad are visiting our brother in Romania," George said, shrugging. "He works with dragons."

"So we're staying here, I guess they don't want us to ruin their lovely trip to see our dearest second eldest brother." Fred grinned mischievously.

"What about you two?" Fred asked, glancing between them.

"I'm going back home for the break," Hermione supplied. "My parents are Muggles, so it's nice to keep them up to date with what's happening to their only daughter."

"I'm staying here," Harry shrugged. The twins seemed to gasp, and exchanged exaggerated glances.

"George, did you hear that?"

"I heard it as well as you did Feorge."

"Imagine Gred, one's leaving…"

"…one's staying."

"How will they survive?"

"I'm not sure Fred."

The two first years frowned as they followed the conversation back and forth. It wasn't their first time being teased by the twins on the fact that they were pretty much inseparable. The four of them walked into the Great Hall, but suddenly the twins stopped, which forced the two younger students behind them to halt as well. One leaned over and said something quietly to the other, who straightened and nodded. He turned around as the other twin kept walking, an impish look to his eyes.

"Harry, Hermione, would you two spare me a moment?"

"Why?" Harry asked suspiciously. George brought his hand up to his heart, a mock wounded expression on his face.

"Don't you trust me Harry? We're teammates!"

Harry snorted. "Sure I trust you, I still want to know why."

George brought out his wand and a piece of parchment from his pocket. He quickly flicked the wood at the paper and folded it. Harry frowned. It hadn't been the Marauder's Map, it had looked too new. George took two steps backward and held the parchment out in front of him. "Look."

They hesitated, but finally Harry took a step forward to view whatever was on the parchment. "If this is some sort of hex to keep me singing Christmas carols all week, know I'll be following _you_ around."

George's grin grew even wider. He looked at Hermione, keeping the paper folded until they were both looking at it. She glanced between the paper and Harry a few times before she finally stepped forward herself. As soon as they were both there he flipped it open.

_Mistletoe_

_Above You_

It took them the same amount of time between reading the three words and glancing up to register exactly what the note implied.

"Aah!" Harry exclaimed, immediately throwing back his arms to stumble away from the spot he was standing. He lost his footing and crashed to the floor, earning himself a large number of stares from the students and teachers who hadn't noticed what was going on and howls of laughter from the other three present. Hermione quickly side stepped out of the plants way, clutching her sides as she saw Harry's flush. He glared at them all, feeling his face burn brighter as other people in the hall figured out what happened. "Oh shut up."

"Not the result we were expecting, but satisfying nonetheless," Fred said from his seat at the Gryffindor table. George walked over to join him, still chuckling.

Hermione waited for Harry to get up before they walked over to the table themselves, Harry refusing to look at anybody trying to catch his eye. He already knew the Slytherins would pick on him for that, even if his rivalry didn't quite exist in this lifetime.

The rest of the day passed quietly and before he knew it he was up the next morning sending off Hermione in the common room. They wished each other happy holidays and Hermione ran to catch the train. Harry spent the rest of the first day sitting in the common room reading. He figured he'd finally be able to get some things done over the next week that he hadn't had the chance to do with Hermione present. The first thing would be to get Ravenclaw's diadem from the Room of Requirements. The second would be to find a way to kill that damn basilisk before it could tear his head off the next year. Ideally he would like to avoid fighting it at all, but he still wanted a back up plan for if he couldn't grab the diary from Flourish and Blotts during the summer. He had a rough idea he was hoping would work, and he figured he'd solidify it with more time in the library. The first time around they'd had a single passage about basilisks to go off of, but considering how ancient of a beast it was Harry knew there'd be more sources on it somewhere. After looking up more about basilisk, he wanted to make a proper list of everything guarding the Stone and figure out how to get rid of them. He already knew, of course, but it would be nice to get his thoughts organized on the subject. And of course there was Sirius. If his godfather wanted to spend time with him that would have a high priority as well.

The next morning after going down to breakfast Harry figured he'd get started on his self assignments for the break. He made his way up to the seventh floor, deciding to get the easiest thing out of the way first. He pulled out his map just before reaching the hallway it was located in, making sure there was nobody near him to see what he was doing. Deciding it was safe he walked back and forth three times concentrating on the Room of Hidden Things.

The door appeared, and Harry drew in a breath before slowly making his way into the room. He could still feel the flames of the fiendfyre as he escaped with Malfoy on his broom at the Battle of Hogwarts. It was before he was able to switch sides, but Harry knew it was a turning point. Dumbledore had been outside fighting Voldemort's forces, leaving Harry to acquire the Horcrux by himself. He still couldn't believe the old man hadn't thought to search his own school. Everyone had told him it was a ridiculous idea. The looks on the Order's faces when he arrived back with the remains of the once priceless artifact made it worth it, though. No one said anything to him for a week, each too embarrassed at laughing at him to do it.

Shaking the memories from his head he made his way toward the back of the room, searching for the tiara he had once so carelessly thrown about. He took him an hour of careful searching before he finally found it. When he did, he picked it up carefully and inspected it. Cringing at what he knew he had to do, he picked up his pouch from around his neck and placed to Horcrux inside of a small bag before closing it all. If he killed the basilisk he could get rid of the thing, but he wanted to find another way which meant putting up with its presence for the moment. There was no way he'd leave it laying around, and once he got to his room he could find a way to transfer it to his Gringotts vault. The goblins didn't care what was stored inside their bank as long as it didn't interfere with their business. Feeling the weight of the soul shard beginning to get to him already he quietly made his way out of the room, checking the map to see if anything had changed. Nothing had- and sighing he walked to the library to get started on his basilisk search.

-:-:-:-

_"What are you trying to do, Potter?"_

_Harry glanced around the dream space, seeing the ring of darkness he had come to expect whenever Voldemort's soul shard wanted a chat. It hadn't started the first time around until later in life, after he had confronted __**him**__ about everything. After that, a large part of Harry stopped caring about the war, and in his darker thoughts the shard had gained strength, feeding off of his magic enough to create a form for itself so it could talk to him, like the Riddle in the diary had made a form by drawing on Ginny's life force. The only difference was Harry kept the shard inside of his mind, not allowing it to become a physical manifestation. Simply to differentiate between it, the Riddle shards, and Voldemort, he had given it a name. A completely unoriginal name, just to make it angry. Shard. He supposed the only reason it could talk to him now was because of his larger magic core and the added influence of the Diadem's soul bit._

_"Killing you. Or, the better part of you," Harry replied coolly. His demeanor wasn't quite as imposing as his twenty-two year old form had been, but he was sure he had least got some type of intimidation across. Having an eleven year old threaten to destroy your soul was at least a __**little**__ intimidating, right? Maybe? Apparently not, because Shard smirked. _

_"You should watch what you're saying Potter. You're aware you have a second piece of my soul on you right now, correct?" Shard sneered. "That makes me stronger, didn't you learn that with the locket?"_

_Harry frowned. "No, school was out. I wasn't interested in learning during break."_

_Shard hissed at him. Harry simply smiled. He knew he shouldn't be provoking the soul, his mind had been torn apart more than once because of their fights, but he couldn't help himself. During the war Shard had become his summer-Dudley replacement, and he had come to vent out all of his anger on the intruder. They stood in silence for a moment, sizing each other up while waiting for the other to say the next word. _

_Finally Harry asked, "Did you want something? Or are you just wasting my magic?"_

_"My time is never a waste Potter," Shard answered in monotone. He walked around the outer ring of darkness, flitting just where Harry's line of sight ended. "Got rid of those filthy glasses I noticed."_

_"Yeah, had glass stabbed into my eyes. Kind of had to fix it," Harry replied sarcastically. The figure narrowed its eyes but said nothing. Harry tensed, waiting for blows he knew would be coming. It seemed like they had gone a little too long without Shard trying to take over his consciousness and he was ready to give it another go. _

_"Whatever your attitude, it will save me time later," Shard said simply. "You didn't think I was going to keep them did you?"_

_"Give up already. You're not getting my body," Harry spat. The way the soul spoke, it was like he already __**had**__ the body and just hadn't picked it up from the drycleaners yet. Harry knew it was suppose to get to him, but he couldn't help but let it. Not even the shard in his head thought he was a worthy opponent, and it pissed him off. Ever since Voldemort had tried to posses him in his fifth year Shard had been trying to do the same. Harry had to wonder if Voldemort had figured out about the soul shard during that time, it would explain a lot, but now wasn't the time to think about it._

_"I disagree." _

_The voice echoed from around the ring and Harry swerved to avoid a burst of green light that came from behind him. Since they were inside his mind they didn't have any wands, and they couldn't actually kill each other. The only thing they could do was send enough magical force at one another until one of their consciousnesses was weakened to the point where it would either flee or be overpowered. For intimidation they could shape the burst to resemble spells- the mind would immediately signal that one burst did something it really didn't and the person would waste time dodging a green 'killing curse' while a truly powerful burst was coming disguised as a red spark. Harry had learned to treat all of the spells with equal suspicion in his mind and spent more time dodging than firing. _

_He spun around, trying to find where Shard had disappeared to. A crackle of air behind him sent him into another dive, and he flung a burst of bright magic back in that direction. He concentrated and sent a large burst throughout the entire area, lightning it up more brightly than it had been before. Shard was standing a small way to the side, watching him as if he hadn't lost any advantage at all. Harry growled, bringing his arm up and shooting a red blur at his opponent. Shard copied the movement with a green surge and the two magics crashed into each other. _

_Harry felt himself beginning to breath heavy. All of the magic they used was __**his**__, and he would become tired when the soul piece wouldn't feel a thing with its small storage of magic. "Damn it Shard, just give up!"_

_"Why, when you're overexerting yourself?" _

_Harry clenched his teeth and drove a spiral of violet light at Shard, who disappeared, reappearing behind the emerald-eyed boy. Harry felt himself be hit in the back with a large spike of power and stumbled forward. He quickly leapt to the side and turned to face his opponent again. Why, inside of his __**own**__ mind, couldn't he disappear and reappear at will while the intruder could? It made no sense, and he felt it was simply because he wasn't able to practice the skill enough to learn how it was done. Harry reached his hand upward and smack a clear gust of magic at Shard like a wall of wind. It wasn't quite as strong, but it was harder to dodge, and Shard stumbled back when it hit him. _

_The spirit glared up at the boy and disappeared again, sending Harry swerving around to find out where he'd gone. _

_"I'm still right here," Shard said in sadistic pleasure, and Harry barely had time to register the amateurish trick when a flash of light hit him from behind and he felt his body collapse to the floor. He felt his arm shaking as he tried to get up, and a hard jab in the back made him cry out in pain. The amused voice echoed from above him, "I can't remember the last time you fell for that, Potter. Your time in 'peace' is making you rusty." _

_Harry cringed, trying to throw the foot off of his back. He felt another hard smack and gasped, pausing in his struggle. "No no Potter. You will behave."_

_Shard's foot came up and kicked him onto his back, and the soul looked down at the eleven year old figure curiously. "Perhaps it's your age. That could always be affecting you as well." He shook his head, "But it doesn't really matter, now does it? Time for you to undergo a little- improvement, shall we say. Goodbye, Potter."_

_Shard lifted his hand up and sent a tunnel of magic at Harry's person, causing him to scream in pain. It wasn't the first time their fight had turned out that way, and all he had to do to keep possession of his body was to keep his consciousness until he woke up. It could take a while, and Harry felt himself crying out as his body fought the pain. Part of his body wanted to curl up while another part was trying its hardest to flail, and Harry felt himself convulse from the magic. Suddenly he heard a shout, and with effort tore his eyes open._

Harry jolted up, sweating profusely and shaking. Two arms grabbed him and shook him gently.

"Harry? Harry? Are you alright?" The deep voice asked. Harry looked to his side to see hollow grey eyes watching him in worry. Standing above his bed, McGonagall stared down at him, her face pale.

"Wha-?" Harry asked, trying to regain his bearings.

"You were screaming, Harry," Sirius said. He hadn't let go of his godchild's shoulders and was peering into Harry's eyes.

Harry stared at them. "You heard-? How? What happened to my silencing charm?"

"Silencing charm, Potter?" McGonagall asked, "Is that what it was?"

Harry nodded, "I always put a charm up before I go to bed…it's never not worked before."

The two adults exchanged glances. McGonagall looked at him, still rather pale. "Well, your charm worked Mister Potter. We didn't hear you until we opened your curtains."

Harry looked between them again. "Oh."

"Harry?" Sirius asked quietly, "What was that? Why were you screaming?"

He looked at his godfather and bit his lip. This wasn't the impression he wanted Sirius to have of him- some idiot child who couldn't keep his night terrors under control. "Just a nightmare," he said. Seeing Sirius was still waiting, he shrugged and said, "It's nothing. I've never slept well."

"How often does this happen?" the man questioned.

Again Harry shrugged. "Nightmares? Err, most nights. That one was a little worse than usual though." He quickly tried to change the subject. "Uhm, if I may ask, why are you two in my dormitory? Professor?" He added, looking at McGonagall to imply her as well.

"When you didn't come down for breakfast on time Mister Black wanted to come up and get you. For that he needed myself, as Head of House," The professor replied. "Most children don't sleep in on Christmas morning."

Harry blinked. Then he swerved his head to look at the end of his bed, and sure enough, there were presents. Not as many as in his first life, but a small pile all the same. A large grin spread over his face as he saw the pile. He looked back at the two adults. "Err…"

McGonagall nodded her head. "We'll give you a moment of privacy for you to change. I will return to my office if either of you need anything. And Mister Potter, I expect to see you after dinner tonight in my office to discuss this."

Harry flushed and nodded. Sirius stood up. "I'll be waiting outside, call me once you're done changing?"

Harry nodded again, and the two adults left the room. Harry quickly rifled through his trunk for some closes he wouldn't be ashamed to wear in front of his godfather, and after pulling them on called the man back inside.

Sirius reentered, looking at his godson as he sat back down on a bed in the dormitory. Harry watched him for a moment, before turning to his presents, since that seemed to be what Sirius was waiting for. He had gotten a book titled _Quidditch Through the Ages_ from Hermione and a hand carved flute from Hagrid. There was only one more present in the pile, and Harry recognized it as the invisibility cloak from Dumbledore. He felt his stomach drop a little when he saw there wasn't anything from Sirius, but hid it well, reaching for his last present. He hoped Sirius wouldn't find it odd that Harry had sent him something. The moment he opened it Sirius let out a gasp. The silvery material flowed out of the package, and Harry dug around the folds for the note. He found it, dragging it out to read.

_Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

Harry briefly wondered why he had signed the note this time, and figured it would have been because he knew Sirius would recognize it and know where it came from, so there was no need to hide the fact. He examined the cloak, acting like it was his first time seeing it, when really he still had his cloak from his last lifetime stored in the pouch around his neck.

"That's…" Sirius said quietly, then asked, "Who sent that to you?"

Harry glanced up and looked back down at the note. "Professor Dumbledore. It says it belonged to my dad and he's returning it."

"So Dumbledore had it this entire time." Sirius breathed, staring at the fabric. Then a small grin appeared on his face. "We used to get into so much trouble, wandering around school after hours with that cloak. Mind you, it saved us from more detentions than what we could've handled." He remained looking at the cloak for a minute before pulling himself out of his memories and placing his eyes on Harry. "Are you ready to go? Dumbledore gave me permission to take you off of Hogwarts grounds today." There was a small tint of bitterness in his voice about actually needing permission to take his own godchild out, but he hid it well to avoid starting the day out badly.

Harry felt his expression light up, and he quickly stored his presents in his trunk. Sirius watched happily as his godchild turned at him, practically beaming, as he lead the way down to the common room and out into the hall.

They spoke a little, Harry questioning where they were going while Sirius supplied the answers, but Sirius's thoughts were still up in the dormitory. Three presents, two of them from adults that knew his parents, and one of them wasn't even a real present but returning something that was rightfully his. He had spoken to McGonagall, Hagrid, and Dumbledore, asking about what type of child Harry was and what his interests were, and the replies had been mixed. Harry was competing for top place in his class with his best friend- a Muggle-born student Sirius couldn't remember the name to- and was the youngest player to have been accepted on a Quidditch team at the school in over a century. That had pleased Sirius, a lot. He inherited his mother's good nature and his father's athletic ability, and apparently he had both their brains.

But the teachers had also said he was extremely withdrawn, had few friends, and seemed to have some sort of self esteem issue. They had come to the conclusion that he always let his best friend- his only friend apparently- get spells or answers correct first, but they never made it seem like his friend wanted him to do that. It was more like he did it on his own. Not to mention the incident with the troll on Halloween he'd heard about. Harry had single handedly taken down a full grown mountain troll to protect his friend, and had ended up with a busted ribcage, several skull fractures, a broken wrist, severe blood loss, and glass from his glasses lodged into his eyes that would have blinded him if it weren't for the immediate medical attention he got. And the first thing he had asked about when he woke up was the upcoming Quidditch game and if his friend was alright. This friend had better be damned proud of the amount of attention she was getting- that was all Sirius could comment on for her.

Now there was this situation with his nightmares that no one seemed to have known about- although keeping it secret by mastering a fifth year charm was impressive, Sirius would give him that. If it hadn't sounded like the boy was being _tortured_ Sirius might've even brushed it off as only a minor importance. But the boy had been screaming well enough to compete with Azkaban inmates, and that was saying something. He hadn't even remembered it was Christmas. What type of child forgot it was Christmas? He had seemed so happy at his tiny pile of three presents- Sirius even noticed him brush away a sad look that had flitted across his face once while opening them. Had he thought Sirius forgot about him? Did he actually think he would be that cruel? Where was the damned Dursley's present to him? They were his guardians!

"Sirius?"

Sirius's head snapped up, and he saw Harry looking at him with worry. They had gotten to the front gate without the older man even noticing, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts. He quickly shook his head. Today was a day he was spending with his godchild- he had spent the last ten years doing nothing but thinking, he wouldn't let it ruin this day. Sirius smiled at him, "Have you ever been on the Knight Bus before?"

Harry looked at him curiously, and asked to avoid answering, "The Knight Bus?"

Sirius grinned, and held out his wand to summon the transportation. With a loud bang a violet bus with its name in golden writing along the front came pulling up in front of them. The doors opened, and Harry recognized Stan hop down to look at them. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, I'm Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor for the day. Where will we be taking you?"

"To Diambotle Square," Sirius said, walking stepping onto the bus with Harry following. Stan jumped back onto the bus, took their payment, and they took off, Harry and Sirius having just sat down before the rocketing movement began. Harry felt himself press into the chair, but brushed it off and forced himself to turn and view Sirius.

"Diambotle Square?" He had heard mention of the place a few times during the war, in passing comments like 'Voldemort's going for the Square' or 'how do you think Diambotle faired?', but he had never actually been to the place itself. He assumed it was another shopping center like Diagon Alley, but not as popular.

Sirius glanced over at him. "Have you ever been there?" When Harry shook his head he continued. "It's like Diagon Alley, but the shops are a lot less everyday objects and more luxury type of things. Plus, it's more likely the businesses will be open on Christmas, unlike Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. You'll see."

Harry frowned but nodded, and they continued on their trip, stopping twice for other passengers to get off. Finally there was a large jolt and Stan was signaling that it was their stop, and they climbed out of the front of the vehicle. Harry felt his jaw drop as he looked around the brightly lit center. It was much more than just a Square he noticed, with a side streets curving away from the heart of the area. The entire place was lit brightly with candles and shining lights flying around above the crowd's heads that Harry had a nagging suspicion were faeries. The snow was cleared from the walkways, but lingered around the edges of the streets and stores as if left there on purpose for effect. In the middle of the square was a large glittering fountain with three delicately carved mermaids sitting on it- to Harry's surprise they were acting like portraits, moving around and pointing out people as they passed.

"We need to make one stop before we go any farther," Sirius spoke quietly at his side. Harry turned his head questioningly and Sirius motion to a shop on their left. They walked over, and Harry noticed it was a robe shop after being steered inside. Sirius continued, motioning toward both their clothes. "We can't exactly walk around like this."

Harry flushed and nodded. He realized Sirius had probably avoided dressing nicely so Harry wouldn't feel left out when they had to get him something better, and followed silently behind as they looked through the shop. A witch came over to them after a moment, and asked in a silky voice, "Do you need any help with anything?"

Afterward the witch helped find nice fitting robes for Harry, while Sirius flirted a little before buying his own outfit. They paid, a large price that Harry felt should constitute his entire Christmas gift, and left the shop, Sirius sending a few more flirtatious looks at the witch before dragging Harry out- as though he had been the one holding them up. Wearing their new clothes they made their way deeper into the Square, and Harry felt himself craning around to see everything they passed. Sirius was right- he didn't see anything he would actually _need_ in any of the windows, they were all just things that would be 'nice to have'. Plus, everything had the feel of being extremely high class and expensive, so he immediately understood why none of the people he knew in his last lifetime had talked about it much. He simply hadn't made friends with anybody who would be able to come here, and Sirius had never been free to bring him.

They talked as they explored the Square, Harry asking questions about various objects while Sirius pointed out everything that was useless, making the younger boy laugh at a number of his comparisons. It seemed even after bringing Harry here he still had a cynical attitude against the 'pure-blood' shops that they passed. By the time lunch came they hadn't bought anything besides the robes, and Sirius motioned to a restaurant they would stop at to eat.

They had sat down at a table and begun looking at menus when Harry noticed a familiar head of blonde hair across the room. "The Malfoys come here?"

Sirius turned his head to see where Harry was looking, and looked back at Harry with a grim smirk. "One of the most prominent pure-blood families in Britain and you thought they didn't?"

"Well, I hadn't thought of it," Harry admitted, feeling a flush spread across his cheeks. "I remember seeing Malfoy in Diagon Alley buying robes for Hogwarts over the summer, I guess I was just wondering why they didn't come here if this place existed. Seems more their style."

"It is," Sirius chuckled. "But you don't really buy school robes from a shop around here, not when they're going to be used as work clothes. It's a giant waste of money. Not even the Malfoys are that impractical."

"Right," Harry said. He proceeded to ask about some items on the menus that he had never seen before, and learned that a number of them were specialized wizard foods. After they ordered they went back to talking- this time Sirius trying to pull more information of Harry's home life from him.

"Why didn't the Dursleys send you a Christmas present?" Sirius asked, trying to sound casual. "Do they not celebrate?"

Harry felt himself cringe and looked up. "No, they celebrate…it's just a part of the 'live and let live' thing I told you about. We don't bother getting each other anything- I didn't send them anything either."

Sirius accepted this with a curt nod. He didn't like what he heard about them, but it made the idea that Harry might want to come and live with him later a lot more probable. "So, Harry. You haven't pointed out anything you want for your Christmas present yet."

The younger boy felt his face heat up and stammered, "I…thought this was it."

"This?"

"The, day out. And new robes." Harry motioned toward what he was wearing. Sirius waved it off with an impatient hand.

"That was necessary to let us walk around without being looked at," Sirius said in an offhand voice. "Besides, I have ten years of Christmas presents to make up to you today. I think the outing and robes consisted of two. You still have eight more."

"You don't have to-"

"I want to," Sirius cut across. Seeing Harry's flush he thought for a moment, trying to find out how to have his way without making Harry uncomfortable. "Why don't you give me a list of things you want, then we can go around and pick up some of them. That way you won't really know what you're getting until we buy them."

Harry nodded, and Sirius handed him a piece of parchment and quill which he conjured up with his wand. Harry bit his lip, trying to think of what in earth he would want as a present. He had never actually been asked before, people simply bought things for him and he enjoyed whatever it was. In truth, he had never actually wanted anything besides the knowledge that someone wanted to get him something. Thinking over all the gifts he had gotten in his last lifetime he quickly jotted down a few things that didn't involve food. Namely 'Quidditch supplies' and 'books'. He stared at his extremely short list and glanced up at Sirius guiltily, for some reason he didn't think it was quite what he had wanted. Sirius raised an eyebrow and reached over for the list. At his first his expression became one of minor surprise, but then he frowned.

Sirius looked at the writing with a nagging feeling at the corner of his thoughts. He frowned. First of all it was an extremely short list- obviously Harry wasn't one to actually want things. While that bothered him it wasn't what seemed so out of place. Suddenly he recognized the feeling as having seen the handwriting before, but he couldn't imagine from where. He hadn't viewed any of Harry's school papers, and he couldn't write when he was one year old so there hadn't been any opportunity for him to see it before. Instead he looked back up and asked, "Are you sure this is all?"

Harry thought for a long moment, biting down on his lip. A thought suddenly came to him and he reached back for the list, which Sirius let slip through his fingers with a rough grin. Harry scribbled down two more items and handed it back. The older man looked and saw the addition of 'healing equipment' and 'defense against the Dark Arts items'. Sirius froze after reading two of the words on the new list. Disbelieving, he sat back and pulled something out of the pocket of his robes which he had taken to carrying around with him. He unfolded a piece of paper with a bewildered Harry watching and proceeded to reread the letter that had given him his freedom a few weeks before.

_To whomever it may concern._

_I have recently noticed the suspicious activity of an unregistered animagus around an area full of young witches and wizards that I wish to bring to the attention of the Ministry's Magical Law Enforcement office. Knowing how difficult it can be to track down wizards with this ability I have captured him and sent him to you in the anti-animagus transformation container, and I hope that you will take this complaint seriously and question him under the use of veritaserum as I believe he was involved in practices of the Dark Arts around our innocent leaders of the future._

_Sincerely,_

_A Concerned Denizen_

He glanced back at the list Harry had just handed him.

_Quidditch Supplies_

_Books (any)_

_Healing Equipment_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts items_

Those two words. They were the exact same. It was identical handwriting, and he looked up at Harry who was still watching him in concern. It was too much to think that this was coincidence, but he felt himself pause as he tried wrapping his mind around its implications. Had Harry, his godchild, been the one to set him free? Even if he didn't know what had been going on at the time he wrote the anonymous letter, he must've realized what he'd done later. If that was true- why hadn't he said anything? What was he hiding?

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who reviewed, favorited, and put this story on their alerts! It makes me really happy to see that people enjoy this story.

This chapter and next chapter have probably the biggest 'plot twists' that there are in the entire fic, with a few more lesser ones later. The way I see it, the other pieces of Voldemort's soul were all able to form some type of defense or personality but a soul that had been _inside_ of someone for sixteen years didn't gain any power at all? Ginny had the diary for a few months before it started taking over her, but Harry had a soul inside of him for years and nothing ever happened. That seemed a bit off to me. I try to keep things believable, that's really my number one concern while writing, so this didn't seem too bad. I probably should have introduced it a bit more though.

Two things from reviews I wanted to address. (1.) In the last chapter, it wasn't that Hermione got over what was going on, she's just good at not letting things show through when they're bothering her. There's some more on her part about that a bit later, she hadn't just forgotten about the troll attack, don't worry. (2.) The response Harry gave to Sirius's 'relative' question had a few reasons behind it, but to avoid filling this space with rambling I'll put it simply: Gryffindor pride, newfound independence where he didn't have to put up with the Dursleys, and trying to keep people from looking into his past too much- it might seem a bit suspicious that all of a sudden on his tenth birthday he stopped being a quiet, scruffy kid and turned into someone who got the top grades in his class. So he just kept the answers simple to keep Sirius and/or the portraits in the office from saying anything to anyone who'd look into it.

Also, I think my times going to be a bit more restrained now. I know, summer should mean free time. But it doesn't. Not now, and that depresses me. But, I was wondering if making my chapters longer would make taking longer to post them better. Give me your opinion in a review? Thanks.

Please review! ^^

_One final note that is totally unrelated to this fanfic: If anyone reading this likes Kingdom Hearts, Cloud/Leon pairings, I have a preview to a fic I'm working on on my website. It's titled __**Shattered Memories** and was originally written for my Creative Writing class, but I thought of turning it into a multi-chapter fic, and I wouldn't mind getting some feedback before I post it anywhere else. It's not on this site yet because it hasn't been fully worked out and I don't want to post it here until I know more about what I'm doing with it. Anyway, if you like Cloud/Leon, go check it out? Thanks~_


	7. A Chat with the Founders

Disclaimer: All characters and settings are © J.K. Rowling, no copyright infringement is intended and I am in no way making money from what I post here.

Rating: T

Pairings: Harry x Hermione

Summary: Unsatisfied with the way the war is turning out and determined to fix everything that has been done wrong, Harry creates a portal back to his tenth birthday, a year before he'd leave for Hogwarts. Upon returning to the past he finds his experience will set many things off from their original course- some things that weren't quite counted for.

* * *

Chapter Seven. A Chat with the Founders

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The Knight Bus rolled into Hogsmeade with a loud bang, pulling up in front of the Hogwart's front gate. Harry and Sirius clambered off and began walking back up to the castle as the bus rocketed off behind them. After their meal they had proceeded to go shopping and buy Harry his gifts. Along with the four items matching the specifics of his list Sirius had bought him a new wardrobe of clothes and a magical journal that could replace his notebooks. Only the owner could read whatever was written inside, and it would automatically organize everything written in it to be placed in certain sections, despite where it was written in the actual book. Harry hadn't been able to stop thanking his godfather- he had been concerned after an awkward silence at the restaurant that he had done something wrong- but Sirius had quickly snapped out of it and they had continued their day without any further incidents. It was the first time Harry had actually spent time alone with his godfather without some pressing concern being priority in their minds, like Voldemort or dementors. In the first timeline they never had actually gotten time to bond and he was determined to change that.

The two of them reached the castle and Sirius halted, drawing a few tiny bags out of his pocket and waving his wand to un-shrink them before handing them to Harry. The Christmas feast would be starting soon in the Great Hall, Dumbledore's condition on letting him take Harry out being that he was brought back before the day was through. Sirius privately wished the Headmaster would go to hell and let him spend time with his godchild how he saw fit, but technically he wasn't the legal guardian and didn't have a right to be taking him anywhere- and as the saying went, beggars couldn't be choosers. He looked down at his godson for a moment before saying, "Merry Christmas Harry, it was nice seeing you again. Keep in touch, alright?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded, then felt his face burn a little as he looked down at his bags, "Thank you for the trip and gifts-"

Sirius waved him off. The boy hadn't stop thanking him since they had started going out. He hesitated for a moment, but came to a decision and turned to leave. "Don't forget, Professor McGonagall wanted to see you after dinner."

Harry's face fell, and Sirius held back laughter at the expression on his face before leaving. Maybe he could turn into a responsible adult- Moony still seemed to doubt him.

Harry watched as the older man walked away before going inside the castle. He felt that his day had already been the best Christmas he had ever had, and went up to the dormitory to put everything away before going back to the Great Hall. The entire hall was lit up by the candle and trees, and he quickly walked over to join the Gryffindor table. Everybody was already seated and eating, and looking around he saw Dumbledore had glanced at him as he entered before going back to his own food. The rest of the meal passed quietly- or loudly, perhaps, with all of the wizard crackers being pulled- and at the end of the meal he glanced at McGonagall, who gave him the 'meet me in my office' look. Harry sighed and picked up the items he had gotten by pulling the crackers (packs of balloons, a chess set, Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, along with various hats he would never wear and other un-notable objects) and made his way to the Gryffindors Head's office. He knocked on the door and was received a call in.

Looking around the office he saw the familiar set up and fireplace from the various occasions he'd been there before. She was seated behind her desk, looking at him over her glasses with a serious expression much different than the one she'd been wearing in the Great Hall a few minutes before. "Mister Potter, please sit down. Madam Pomfrey should be with us shortly."

Harry walked over to one of the chairs, trying to look innocent and slightly confused. He hadn't been thinking at his best that morning when he spoke to her, _why_ he had admitted to having nightmares he didn't know, although if he had lied he would have had to explain the silencing charm. Now he was just going to have to try and play it off as though it was nothing important, and for that he already had a vague idea. "Madam Pomfrey, ma'am?"

"Yes," McGonagall said, raising her eyebrows. "You didn't think I could administer some type of action for your situation without her medical opinion, did you?"

"Professor," Harry began, ignoring the slight narrowing of her eyebrows as he tried to explain his way out of the situation. "There's really nothing wrong, I've had trouble sleeping for a long time. I think it's just normal nightmares."

"Be that as it may, Mister Potter, as your head of House I still need to look into this," she replied. "It simply isn't acceptable for one of my students to scream themselves hoarse at night while using silencing charms. If there is a problem then something needs to be done."

"It's not normally so bad." As McGonagall looked at him disbelievingly he continued." Really, most night I don't even need the charm, I lived without it at the Dursley's. Just, once in a while I do scream, or make noise, and I didn't want the other Gryffindors to be-"

At that moment the door clicked open, and the school nurse came inside the office, heading straight for Harry. Pomfrey bent down to look into his eyes, making Harry cringe slightly. Why was it she always made him feel like he'd just had a slab of metal stabbed through him? Honestly, just passing her during rare occasions in the hallways made him start checking for injuries, he needed to start seeing her less.

"So what's the problem here, night terrors?" Pomfrey asked, still peering at him intently. Harry cringed at the way she defined it; hearing 'terrors' come from the school nurse made his argument sound less convincing.

"Yes," McGonagall said, shifting her eyes to the mediwitch. "He was screaming rather badly this morning, and informed me that it happened on a normal basis."

"How long have you had trouble sleeping, if I may ask?" Pomfrey had taken out her wand and began flicking it, making Harry feel even less comfortable than a minute before.

"For as long as I can remember," Harry replied. Looked like he was going to have to go with his 'pitiful child' routine, which he had really been hoping to avoid. He just had to wait for the next question which he knew he'd be asked.

"Would you care to tell me what these dreams are about?" she prompted. And there it was. Harry wondered if he should give any resistance to make it look more believable, but decided against it. If he did he might have to put up with them coming to some other conclusion, and what was the worst that could happen by being direct?

"Well," Harry started, looking away from Madam Pomfrey and landing his gaze on the desk. "It's...I have one dream a lot, although I never remember much of it. There's a lot of green light, some screaming- I think it's a woman, she's begging for something. Then her voice just stops. After that there's a lot of pain, and I normally wake up."

The two grown woman were silent, processing what he had just told them. Harry saw McGonagall's eyes go wide and felt a little guilty, but brushed it off. He could have told her things that were much worse. He waited for what they were going to say next, and when McGonagall did her voice sounded slightly hoarse.

"I see..." she began, then asked haltingly, in a cautious voice, "Do you, know what this dream is about?"

"Not really, ma'am." The two woman glanced at each other. Harry thought for a moment they were just going to let him go. It's not like either of them was going to sit down and explain to him he was apparently hearing his mother being murdered. Unfortunately, Pomfrey seemed to have other ideas.

"Do you ever have any other dreams, things that are different from this?" she asked. The mediwitch waived her wand a few times more, probably running some test on his stress level or something. Harry knew saying anything else would get him into a corner, so he shook his head. Pomfrey was busy looking at her wand movements, and didn't see him. "I'm sorry dear, could you say that again?"

Wondering why on earth she wasn't paying attention to her patient instead of her wand, especially after revealing some potentially traumatic information to the witch, he said, slightly irritated, "No, not really."

Suddenly the tip of Pomfrey's wand lit up red, and Harry jerked his head around to stare at it. Had he just done something wrong? The mediwitch looked up at him with a sad expression. "Would you care to tell me the truth this time, Mister Potter?"

A lie detecting spell. He was just caught lying. Harry glanced at Professor McGonagall, who was looking at Harry with something between a stern and pitying expression. He turned back to the nurse and asked curiously, "Do you always assume students are lying?"

"No, not normally," she replied simply. "But you should realize Mister Potter, most Gryffindor's don't normally reveal their problems so easily. I've dealt with it often enough in the past, for you to simply come out and say this is a little out of character from what I've seen, both from other students and you personally. It made me wonder if you were telling us one thing to avoid telling us another. And don't bother trying to blame it on technicalities, it picks up intentions, not just facts."

Harry sunk back into his chair. That didn't go as planned, at all. To top it off, he didn't have a backup plan ready for if they didn't accept that story. He just revealed he relived his parents deaths, he hadn't expected them to pry any farther than that. His silence seemed to tell the woman something, because they exchanged glances.

"Very well. Minerva, I'll suggest that Mister Potter returns to his dormitory tonight. I'll have some things ready for him to come down to my office tomorrow afternoon, and we can work this out then. At the very least I'll have something for his insomnia." Pomfrey said at last, looking at the professor.

"Alright Poppy. I have a few more things to discuss with Mister Potter before he returns to his dormitory." With that the nurse bid them goodnight and left, leaving Harry to turn to his professor with a numb sense of worry. He was sure he was going to get punished for lying to them, but he was sure they wouldn't be able to do anything to match what he was feeling at the moment. That witch was too bloody trustable. Even after all of Moody's warning's and his own experience with people trying to trick information out of him, he got caught by a lie detecting spell, cast right in bloody front of him. Let McGonagall punish him with whatever detention she wanted, he honestly felt like he might deserve it, just not for the reason it'd be given. His professor looked at him sternly over her glasses. "Mister Potter, this morning's display of magic was quite impressive. Not many first years can cast such a high level charm and have it last an entire night."

Harry sat, dumbstruck. This hadn't been what he was expecting, and responded with a small, "Err, thanks."

Her firm features didn't change. "This wasn't your first instance of knowing spells above your grade. I believe you've been using heating charms for most of the winter on yourself and Miss Granger. May I ask where you've learned them all?"

"I read about them in books," Harry replied. The one thing he had made sure to prepare for was an instance if he accidentally used spells past what grade he was in. It was the reason he had made sure he was seen reading so much, aside from the fact that all the books he read now were far past Hogwarts level and he hoped would help him during the war. This way no one would question his superior spell casting abilities.

McGonagall surveyed him, seemed to debate what she next wanted to say. Finally, she said in a thoughtful tone. "Normally I would not encourage students trying to learn so much on their own. Spells can become very dangerous of they are handled incorrectly, and there have been many occasions where students have gotten hurt trying to go over their heads. However it seems to me that you have already attempted this a number of times and are doing fairly well for yourself. It also seems to me that it is a waste for you to continue your school work the way you are now since it's obvious you are not being challenged. The same goes for a lesser extent to Miss Granger.

"Therefore, I would like to offer you private lessons, that you will have with me after your normal classes on certain days of the week starting next semester." Harry felt his mouth drop open, and the professor continued. "I will extend this offer to Miss Granger if she would like it as well on the day she returns from Christmas break, but I want your answer the day before. Understood, Mister Potter?"

She gave him a piercing look over the top of her spectacles, and Harry nodded, wondering why she wanted him to answer before Hermione was asked. With that she sent him back to his common room, it already being around nine o'clock. When he walked inside he noticed the Weasley twins rush past, holding something in one of their hands, and closely following was Percy, saying something about his prefect badge while trying to get it back. After a moment Harry grinned, remembering the Weasley's antics from his past lifetime and made his way to the stairs leading up to his dormitory.

He crawled onto his bed and pulled the curtains shut, quickly taking out the second invisibility cloak and inspecting it. This would be useful, now when he chose to start wandering around with Hermione they could each have a cloak to wear. Sighing, he quickly got changed into some of the new pajamas Sirius had bought him while they were out and crawled under the covers to his bed. Something was tugging on the back of his mind however, and he frowned as he tried to remember what he might've been missing. Then he recalled what he had done on his first night with the cloak, and wondered if he could still find the Mirror of Erised this time around. He didn't need to, he already knew how to work it to get the Stone from it later if he had to, but it would be interesting to see what his heart's desire had changed to. He had no doubt it had, Harry had been through to much to want something as innocent as his family anymore.

Harry waited until he heard Ron come up and fall asleep before he slipped his robe around him and went back downstairs and out of the common room while passing Ron's bed he glanced at him, and a small smile formed at his plans for the next day. He walked around the halls briefly, heading toward the fourth floor to find the classroom where the mirror was located. He wondered if Dumbledore would be there like before, and pulled out his map as he walked to check. The Headmaster's dot was located in his circular office, far away from the room with the mirror. Harry frowned, wondering when he had first noticed his students walking the halls and discovering the artifact. He put it into his pocket and kept going, passing the suits of armor and portraits silently. He didn't run into Filch of Snape this time around, but kept an eye open for teachers anyway.

Finally he came to the room where the mirror was kept and peered inside. The large object was located the same place it had been before, and the room was empty. Harry slipped inside and walked over to stand in front of it. Suddenly he felt a small fissure in one of his magic shields and whipped around to look at the room. Nothing had changed. Grabbing the map out of his pocket he noticed the dot in Dumbledore's office had stopped moving. Harry felt a grim smirk appear on his face. The Headmaster had set an alarm up on the room so he would know when someone entered and Harry's shields had detected it. He looked around, trying to find a way the professor might be watching him. There was nothing suspicious that caught his eye and Harry let it go, moving to stand in front of the mirror. It wasn't like Dumbledore would be able to see what he saw even if he was watching.

As soon as he was in front of the mirror the room behind him disappeared and another image took its place. It was him. He was different, though, older. He looked more confident and stronger. He looked like someone who would actually be able to win the war. Beside him Harry saw his friends, all members of the Emerald Alliance- the name of his resistance group. Hermione was directly off to his right, smiling at him and looking just as he remembered her before she died. Then there was Luna on his other side, and Draco further off on his left, a little separated. Behind them were Fred and George, and Neville. None of them had been members of his group, but he felt happy at the thought that they might be. Even Ginny was there, standing a little further back. She didn't seem to be pushing her affections on him in the mirror, and Harry felt a pang as he remembered their break up, but was happy to see that his desire recognized he didn't want her to be his one and only, but just his friend. He also saw a few other Hogwarts student who he had gotten to join his cause, Dean Thomas had ended up joining them, Colin Creevy who worked as an inside in the _Prophet_, Lisa Turpin, a Ravenclaw he hadn't even met until their seventh year but was great at charms work, Anthony Goldstein who was a member of the DA, then Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff. He hadn't gotten a lot of members in the first timeline, by the time he started making the EA it was too dangerous to go around asking people to join, so it had stayed a small but successful group. Draco was the only Slytherin there, something which made a few of the other members irritable, but once they found out _why _he was joining them, they had accepted his membership, if grudgingly so. Past the back row were other familiar faces- people who had been a part of the Order but had sympathized with his decision to leave, and he smiled when he saw they were standing in a lively scene of Diagon Alley before it was destroyed. That was his desire? A peaceful world where his friends were still alive? Harry shook his head, biting back a laugh. Maybe he was still on the innocent side after all.

With that thought he carefully left the room and made his way back to Gryffindor Tower, where he shoved his cloak and map back inside of his pouch and went to bed.

The next day Harry woke up feeling a mixture of nervous, grumpy- remembering he had to go see Pomfrey that afternoon for tests on his sleeping habits- and excited- thinking of the plans he had made before realizing he had to see the witch . He pulled on one of his new robes and made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. After eating he went back to his dormitory to work on something that was for that afternoon and before he knew it, it was time for lunch. He quickly ate and made his way to the hospital wing to face Madam Pomfrey and whatever new torture she had created for him. He was more than a little annoyed that he had seen the nurse three times already that year, when the first time around he had yet to see her at all by this point, but shoved it into the back of his mind as he pushed the door open.

He looked around and saw the nurse bustling around her office at the end of the ward. Harry walked forward and tapped on her door to get her attention. Pomfrey looked around, and seeing him made her way to her desk and grabbed a folder before shooing him back into the main part of the wing. She didn't seem to be holding any type of grudge for him lying to her the other night, nor was she pulling out her wand to perform any type of medical evaluation on him.

"Sit down Mister Potter," She said, motioning toward a chair and table that were set up against the wall. Harry sat, feeling oddly like he was being given some sort of exam that he had to pass. The nurse placed a set of papers in front of him, as well as an ink-free quill. His previous feeling increased, and he looked up at the woman in confusion. "Take this, and call me over when you're done. Don't spend too much time on it, you have a few others to do as well."

When he realized she wasn't going to explain anything to him he sighed and picked up the small grey quill, looking at the paper with a bored expression. Wouldn't Hermione be proud, seeing him taking tests over his break. He started filling it out, noticing that the questions seemed to range everywhere from personal information and areas of interest to dates in history. He scribbled his responses, but the moment he tried to 'dumb down' one question that it would have been impossible for him to know the ink stopped appearing from the writing utensil. He shook it, and tried pressing down harder on the paper. Still nothing. He tried it a few times, wondering briefly if the spell on the quill was broken. Harry was about to call Madam Pomfrey over when he suddenly felt the sensation of being watched and stopped. He glanced between the quill and his paper, and carefully moved on to the next question, which he thought it would be safe to answer honestly. The ink came out perfectly fine.

A lie detecting _quill_? Why hadn't he ever heard of these before? Looked like Madam Pomfrey didn't quite trust him again. Harry bit his lip, trying to figure out what he was suppose to do. What if the question 'are you a time traveler?' actually came up? He'd be thrown in Azkaban! Harry looked at the previous question, the one he couldn't answer. He tried to write 'I don't know', but the ink wouldn't appear. He then tried to write something a bit off topic, to see if he could 'misinterpret' the question, but the ink still didn't show up. He could still feel the gaze on him and he moved on, not wanting to be seen spending too much time trying to lie. Finally he finished the rest of the packet, finding himself become more and more nervous every time a question came up he couldn't lie to. He needed a small break to figure out how to overcome the dilemma, but he knew he wasn't going to get one.

Madam Pomfrey came over to take the test and put a new one in front of him without looking at him. Harry was reminded why she was one of the scariest women he had ever met as he looked at the next paper. He bit down on his lip and kept going, answering the questions as best he could without lying. This went on for two more packets of questions, by the end of which Harry was ready to start hexing people. There hadn't been any extremely dangerous questions to him which he was grateful for, but he had still been forced to show more than he would have liked. Every answer said something, even the ones that had been left blank, and Harry knew that all too well.

"Can I go…?" Harry asked, a hopeful note in his voice when Madam Pomfrey had taken his last packet and the damned quill back.

"Not yet, Mister Potter." The nurse said in a kind, I'm-going-to-find-out-everything-you-don't-want-me-to-know manner. Harry felt his stomach drop a few notches. She looked over all the tests, frowning at points and jotting things down on a piece of parchment she had beside her. At one question she stopped, and her frowned deepened as she looked over the paper at Harry. Unconsciously he flinched- what did he do? She seemed to debate something for a moment before walking into her office. He heard her bustling around, and a minute later she came back out with another packet and handed him back the quill. "Do this one for me, if you would."

He looked at and put it down on his desk. The question didn't seem all too scary, with the exception of a few scattered around it, but it was rather long- taking him the same amount of time to do this one as it took him to do two of the others. It seemed to be much more personal and opinionated, actually. While he worked he could hear her continue to check over the other papers and wondered what had stood out so much that he was given this one. He was trying to make them seem as normal and eleven-year old like as possible. Without lying. Can't forget the anti-lie quill, he thought, gritting his teeth. Finally he passed the last paper and quill back to her, hoping he had done all right on all of them. It was when she was about half way though with his packet that something struck him.

The only paper to ask him about his sleeping patterns had been bits of the first and second. The last three had nothing to do with sleep, or dreams. What was he being tested for?

Finally she put down the papers and peered at Harry closely. "Mister Potter," she said at last. "Please wait here while I call Professor McGonagall."

Harry felt his stomach drop again as he watched her go into her office. He was an idiot. He couldn't even notice when he was being tricked into a test of knowledge and he expected to lead a resistance against one of the most powerful wizards of their century? His throat tightened slightly as he stared at the door to the nurse's office, hoping he hadn't done anything that couldn't be reversed. Making that portal had been a pain, and he wasn't sure if he could do it again just to turn back a few days. Or years, once it was actually done being made.

After what felt like hours the office door opened again and three people stepped out, much to Harry's horror. Madam Pomfrey had been joined by Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore, obviously both flooing over from their own offices. Dumbledore was reading the paper that Harry had just filled out, and didn't bother looking at him for a minute. Finally he asked the nurse, "You're sure about the results, Poppy?"

"I'm positive Headmaster," Pomfrey replied. "Mister Potter took the test with an Anti-Fabrication Quill after all."

The Headmaster nodded and turned his gaze onto Harry for the first time. "This _is_ quite interesting, now isn't it?" The question sounded more rhetorical than literal so Harry didn't bother saying anything. After a moment Dumbledore looked away and said to the two at his side, "We'll need a proper test done of course. As much as I'd like to avoid it, I don't know of anywhere we could have it done but at the Ministry. I'm afraid I don't have the capabilities to judge this myself."

"The Ministry, sir?" Harry couldn't help but blurt out. He felt like things were getting extremely out of control and didn't like it one bit. And no one had said _what_ he'd done wrong.

"Yes, Mister Potter." McGonagall answered for the Headmaster, looking over at him, not completely unkindly. Harry felt a huge surge of relief. She wouldn't be acting nice to him if she knew he was a criminal- since time travel _was_ a criminal offense. She turned back to Dumbledore. "He will need to be registered, won't he?"

Registered? Harry felt all the tension that had just left come straight back into him. Registered for _what_?

"If it turns out he is, than yes," Dumbledore replied. "I will contact the Fudge this evening, see when we can schedule an appointment for Harry to attend."

Harry sat, frozen, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally he asked, trying not to make his voice seem innocently curious, "Sir, what exactly do I need to go to the Ministry for?"

The three adults looked back over to him. Instead of answering, McGonagall asked, "Mister Potter, what exactly is the subject matter of your dreams? Aside, from what you told us last night?"

Harry didn't say anything, wondering why he was now being asked about that. None of the tests had cared about that. Where was the connection now? Seeing that he wasn't going to reply, Dumbledore picked up a piece of paper from where he'd put it down without Harry noticing before and held it out to him. "Harry, if you would, look down at question twenty-seven."

Harry took the paper and did as he was told. He recognized it as one of the first few tests he'd taken. _Q27: The All-Star vs. Quiberon Quafflepunchers match set a record length as the longest Quidditch World Cup held. How long did the match last? A: Five days_

Harry looked up, thoroughly bewildered. So he knew a lot about Quidditch, he didn't understand how that implied anything important. His expression must have conveyed his confusion, because Dumbledore went on. "Perhaps it would be easier to ask this: Harry, do you ever have feelings of déjà vu, or feel as if you know what's going to happen before it does?" Harry looked back down at the question. What did he say here that was so wrong? "Harry?" his Headmaster prompted.

"I…don't know sir." Harry avoided looking up. He knew he had his occlumency shields up and that Dumbledore wouldn't be able to look into his mind, but Dumbledore didn't know about that yet, and he preferred to keep it that way. The World Cup that lasted five days, he had never attended it, but he had heard about it from somewhere. And he knew it happened before the cup he saw. He tried to recall what he knew about it…it was a World Cup match that lasted five days obviously, Percy had told him about it, he thought…yeah, he'd first heard about it when he went to see the Ireland vs. Bulgaria World Cup with the Weasleys…Percy was aggravated, because he didn't want the cup he had attended to go on the same length that that one had…he only mentioned it because he said it had happened the year before. The year before Harry's fourth year…which meant…

"Are you aware Harry, that there are some questions on this test that the answers are already known to by a select group of people?" Dumbledore asked. Harry slowly shook his head, and Dumbledore nodded. "The Ministry puts out these tests to various school in case signs of a gifted child ever appears. Harry, you'll be going to the Ministry to find out whether or not you posses the power of a Seer. Judging from you're rather specific answer, I would dare say you do."

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Harry fell back onto his bed, finally having escaped the needling of the teachers and the plans to have him attend a Ministry appointment. McGonagall, knowing he had lived with Muggles and assuming that his nervousness had been because he didn't know about what was going on, had sat him down and explained what Seers were and how the Ministry kept lists of them the same way they did with Animagi. He had never realized before that that the Ministry kept a registry for Seers, but thinking back he figured it should have been obvious since they kept records of everything else. He stared at the ceiling wondering how he was going to get himself out of the mess he'd made. Whatever he chose he would have to explain how he knew about the match. Apparently there had been other questions he'd answered in s way that suggested he might have 'the gift', and he doubted he'd be able to wave them all off as a fluke.

Harry frowned. What if he made it look like he _was_ a Seer? A shy, modest Seer who didn't like talking about his Sight? It would explain any flukes he made later in case he said or did something stupid again. Coming to a decision Harry left the dormitory, heading toward the library to do some actual research. He still had a few hours left before his next assignment for the day, and he would need to make sure he didn't mess anything up while taking the evaluation, and to make sure there weren't any strings attached to being registered. He knew the Ministry couldn't rule your life since Professor Trelawney worked at Hogwarts, and during the fifth year she was even looked into by Umbridge for being a fake. Which meant she either hadn't passed the test, or had registered without taking it since her Great-great-grandmother or something had been famous for being a Seer and she was allowed to use that as a byway around it. Harry figured he would look it up when he got to the library.

By the time dinner came Harry had gone through most of the books about Divination and past Seers, as well as checked out some on the Ministry's regulation control. Seeing the time on his wristwatch he closed his books and made his way toward the Great Hall. This was still one thing, while possibly immature or obsessive, that was nagging at him to be gotten done. That was of course, Ron. He didn't want to be overly cruel, but the Troll could have killed Hermione or himself, and the prat needed to learn a lesson not to do it again. Hell, not even Malfoy had done anything that would seriously kill any of them until fifth or sixth year, everything else he did just would have harmed them or gotten them in trouble. Now that Harry wasn't friends with Ron, he wasn't sure if anything like the troll would happen again if he didn't do anything.

Harry entered the Great Hall and looked around. He saw the twins talking animatedly between themselves, and Percy was at another table sitting with a few Prefects who had stayed behind. Ron was sitting a few seats down from the twins, but wasn't included in their conversation. Harry almost felt bad for him, sitting by himself, but not quite. He walked over to the table and sat down at the end, pulling some food toward him and taking a book out of his pocket. He un-shrunk it to reveal a rather thick and old fashioned tome, then he opened it and began reading. It was the same book Hermione had caught him reading during his first night at Hogwarts- _The Art of Illusions: Hidden Arts that Wizards have Forgot_- and he was eager to try it out.

After fifteen minutes Ron got up and began making his way out of the hall. Harry smiled, pulling a number of small rings out of his pocket and slipping one on each finger. Once he had done that he stood and left the table himself. When he'd gotten outside the room he threw his invisibility cloak around himself and followed the path he knew Ron was taking. Upon catching up with the redhead he drew back, whispering a spell and flicking his fingers.

Ron kept walking, looking ahead of him with a bored expression. He had imagined that staying in the castle for Christmas would be a little more exciting, but none of the other Gryffindor boys had stayed- except bloody Potter, and he wasn't about to hang out with him- and the twins who didn't want to hang around with him. There was no way he was going to be stuck with Percy, so it left him spending most of the holiday vacation alone. A small movement out of the corner of his eye brought him out of his silent musings. At first he just thought a rat had gotten into the castle or escaped from a student and it hadn't been caught yet, but looking at it a little closer he realized he recognized it. "Scabbers?"

The rat, which looked exactly like Ron's lost pet, turned and looked at him, twitching its whiskers before turning back to what it was doing and scrambling down a connecting hallway. Ron began jogging after it. He had been looking for that bloody rat for ages. "Scabbers! Come back here!"

Harry followed silently, making sure to keep himself a little distance behind, but staying close enough to control what was going on. He made the imaginary rat continue running, stopping every once in a while to make sure Ron didn't give up chasing it. Once they had gotten to a certain hallway, far away from any students who might be wondering around and devoid of any teachers, Harry made his rat run down one last 'hall'. He watched as Ron turned in after him, and pulled his wand out, closing and locking the hidden door. He also cast a silencing charm on the room before making his own way through an illusion created wall and into a different room next to where he was standing.

Upon entering his room, Harry cast the same silencing and locking charms on his door he'd cast on Ron's, but these were to keep people from getting in, not out. It was an extra precaution, to anyone passing by, both doors would look like parts of the wall next to them. Considering how many places in Hogwarts moved he didn't think anyone would find it odd for them to be missing on the off chance someone did come close to their spot. Harry walked over to a desk arrangement he had set up earlier in the middle of the room and sat down, pulling off his cloak and shoving it into his pouch. The book he placed beside him, so he would have a reference to look at in case he forgot something. On the desk in front of him was a mirror that let him see into the room Ron was now sealed inside. He had remembered the two-way mirror Sirius had given him before he'd died, and bought a new set for himself. He always felt a little guilty using them, thinking about what happened to his godfather, but he shoved the thoughts aside. Looking inside the mirror now, he saw Ron looking around in a type of irritated confusion.

As soon as Ron had followed Scabbers down the last hallway the rat had disappeared, and Ron had found himself in some type of room without any doors or windows. There was nothing inside the room except two torches on the walls on either side of him. He didn't realize that in front of him was a mirror that had been hidden to match the stones beside it. Ron knew he had been led into some sort of prank, now he wanted his idiot brothers to end it. "Alright, Fred, George, let me out of here!"

"Fred? George? I'm afraid I know no one by that name."

Ron whipped around, looking for the source of the voice. Standing- or more accurately- floating behind him was a ghost, wearing old fashion robes and looking particularly high class; he was bald with a short beard and thin figure. The spirit's eyes were glaring at Ron, who was staring at him in slight confusion. It was an unfamiliar ghost that he'd never seen before in the castle.

"May I ask why exactly you are here?" the ghost asked. "How did you find this room? I wasn't aware it was built to respond to blood-traitors."

Just as Ron was opening his mouth in outrage another voice floated from his right.

"Now now Salazar, there's no need for that." Ron turned to look, and saw a plump woman with ginger colored hair watching him good naturedly. She also looked ancient, as though she was from a long time ago. The name Salazar stuck in Ron's mind, and he felt like he must have been seeing things. The founders hadn't become ghosts, he would have heard of that if it was true. "We welcome all students here at Hogwarts, whether you like it or not."

"Wrongly so, I still say," the man implied as Slytherin shot back. "Just look at this dolt. You think wizards like _this_ should be allowed into our school?"

"Everyone is welcome." Ron jerked his head to his left, where the newest voice was coming from. Another ghost with long dark hair had appeared, and spoke in a soft voice. "Helga is right. Besides, you cannot judge children to be worthy because of their family. It seems to me there are some very bright children from non-magical backgrounds here this year."

"I agree to that statement, Rowena." Looking back to the wall he'd originally been facing Ron saw another man, with a mane of hair and piercing eyes. He was bulkier than the ghost across from him, and was looking at Ron critically. "Why, I know of one excellent example in my own house. A small Muggle born witch, I believe she's beating all of _your _children in their tests."

"Pah," Slytherin hissed. "Is this _witch-_" the word was spit out like a curse, as if the girl didn't deserve the title, "- is so extraordinary, why was she almost killed by this boy here?"

"What?" Ron asked, spinning around to face the first ghost. "What are you talking about? I haven't almost killed anybody!"

"No?" Slytherin asked, smirking. "Seems to me you almost did the school a favor by getting rid of that Mudblood with the troll. There's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I'd say the attempt was _almost_ Slytherin worthy. Not quite, you're not that good and most certainly not that well blooded, but the intent was there."

"Yes, this boy did do a lot of damage that night." Ravenclaw looked at Ron in disgust. "Harassing a child just because she has more knowledge than yourself. Brutish and ignorant. Why, in our time this child would have been expelled, and had his magic stripped. I would have seen to it personally."

Ron stared at the ghost in horror. A wizard having his magic stripped was one of the greatest shames that could be given to anyone. The punishment wasn't even around anymore, that's how cruel the modern wizarding society believed it to be.

"Well, Rowena, I don't think his offense was worth a punishment quite that extreme," Hufflepuff defended. "He _is_ still just a child. Perhaps if he was older and behaving that way, but not as a simple eleven year old. Why, look at the poor boy! He's not exactly a genius like any of us here. I'm sure he's just lonely, and struggling through his classes without any friends. I always did wonder why they got rid of the different levels of class difficulty, 'detrimental to the students health' sounds like a lousy excuse to me."

"Examples in your house, Gryffindor?" Slytherin cackled. "What do you think of this one? You go ahead and have the brightest witch, if you have the dimmest wizard it balances itself out. The way your house is going they'll kill each other off before anything becomes of them."

"But I didn't kill anyone!" Ron yelled again, swerving to look at the man. "I didn't even come close- she was fine! Bloody Potter was hurt more than she was, and it was his own fault for getting in the way!"

"Yes, the child who saved her was an excellent example of my house's bravery, something you seem to lack. If he hadn't been there the girl would have surely been killed," Gryffindor sighed, looking at the wall across from him. "I admit, my trusted Sorting Hat does seem to judge students a little prematurely at times."

"I think it judged him fine, what other house would he have gone in?" Slytherin pushed with a twisted smirk. "He's not even close to being cunning enough for my house, a troll is far too rash."

"I don't believe this student would have fit into my house either, Godric," Ravenclaw agreed. "He isn't quite up to par with the expectations of my students."

"He doesn't seem to be very fair in his judgments I'm afraid." Ron turned to look at Hufflepuff, following the founders as they spoke. She looked at him sadly. "Nor is he the hardest worker I've ever seen."

Gryffindor didn't say anything, simply looked at Ron with disdain.

Harry lifted his right index finger, making the 'ghost' of Godric Gryffindor fade out of existence. He then did the same thing with the two fingers controlling Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, finally making Slytherin disappear after letting out one last cackle. The rings he was wearing allowed him to control his illusions like puppets, all he had to do was concentrate on what finger a certain image was attached to and send his magic into it so the figure would do his bidding. He could have done it with a wand, but it was a lot more complicated and required twice the concentration. He hadn't wanted to mess up, plus he was trying to experiment with different types of magical conductors, so he used the rings instead.

Finally he tugged up his left pinky, sending the room into darkness. After removing the illusions he had cast over the door and desks piled against the wall,, and picking up his wand to wave away the locking charm, he lit the room up again, allowing the panicked form of Ron reappear in his vision through the mirror. Seeing his new environment, Ron spun around in confusion before bolting toward the door and pulling it open. Harry could hear him running down the hall past his door and smiled. Satisfied with his work he stood up and stretched before gathering his things together and taking the rings off of his fingers, disabling all the other illusions he had in place. It seemed to him that it had been a job well done.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and put this story on their alerts! It means a lot, thank you!

And there's the big conclusion that lets Harry hide his secret for a little bit longer. I had never actually seen a time travel story use that (well, aside from with Luna, but that's different- in the fics I read with her in them she normally _is_ a Seer of some sort) and I liked the idea. Harry's revenge on Ron finally happened in this chapter too. I didn't want Harry to seem too cruel or anything, so I tried to have his revenge double as a lesson for Ron, so he actually got something from it. I figured that being terrorized by the founder's 'ghosts' seemed appropriate for a first year student. Also, Sirius didn't really say anything about the note to Harry in this chapter, but there's a reason for that, I didn't just forget it, don't worry.

Please review! ^^


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